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ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE RESTORATIO] 
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

(1642- 1 780) 



■?&&& 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 



THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, 

TORONTO 



Ltd. 



\ 



ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE 

RESTORATION AND 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

(1642-1780) 



BY 



GEORGE HENRY NETTLETON 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE SHEFFIELD 
SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY 



Nefo ffotft 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1914 

All rights reserved 






Copyright, 1914, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 191 4. 



MAR I0ICI4 

Nottoooti i^ress 

J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©CLA369367 



/ Y*i 



GO 
SIR ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WARD 

IN TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP 



/*? 



PREFACE 

Despite the activity of research in the general field 
of English drama, and the marked growth of critical 
interest in its contemporary aspects, little heed has 
yet been given to certain earlier periods of modern 
English drama which help to explain its later de- 
velopment. For the most part, students of English 
dramatic history have preferred even the by-paths 
and meanders of Elizabethan drama to the main- 
travelled roads that lead onward from the eighteenth 
century. In one of the bibliographical notes in his 
admirable volume entitled Tragedy, Professor A. H. 
Thorndike puts the case tersely : ' Ward's History of 
Dramatic Literature ends with the death of Queen 
Anne; and there is no adequate history of the 
English drama for the last two centuries, and no 
good bibliography.' So vigorously, indeed, have 
almost all the fields of English literature been cul- 
tivated, that it is doubtful whether there now remains 
any other equally neglected area comparable in 
breadth with that clearly suggested by Professor 
Thorndike. His own concluding chapters, though 
confined to tragedy, form, in fact, one of the few 
significant contributions toward the broader critical 
investigation which must review the whole course of 
modern English dramatic development. 

The present volume owes its origin to a plan, for- 
mulated some dozen years ago, to continue, though 



Vili PREFACE 

on a lesser scale, the history of English drama from 
the point where it was abandoned by Doctor — now 
Sir — Adolphus W. Ward. So intimate, however, are 
the relations between eighteenth-century drama and 
that of the Restoration, that it soon became advisable 
to include the earlier period, and ultimately to revert 
even to the dramatic interregnum which in reality 
links, while it seems to separate, Restoration and 
Elizabethan drama. In this way, it is hoped, the 
continuous development of modern English drama 
has been more clearly emphasized, and the necessary 
background for later critical discussion more def- 
initely supplied. The present volume, accordingly, 
deals with the entire period from the closing of the 
theatres in 1642 to the culmination of eighteenth- 
century drama in Sheridan. A subsequent volume, 
for which the material is largely in hand, will con- 
tinue the record from about 1780 through the nine- 
teenth century. 

The aim of this work has been rather to ascertain 
the actual course of English drama than to warp its 
often discordant facts into conformity with a pre- 
conceived theory of dramatic evolution. Almost from 
the outset, in fact, it became necessary to discard 
many of the traditional assumptions of dramatic crit- 
icism. Even in the case of Restoration drama, which 
has received far greater critical attention than has 
hitherto been given to that of the eighteenth century, 
investigation has disclosed much that fails to har- 
monize with some of the articles prescribed by an 
earlier critical creed. Yet the tone of this work has 
not consciously been controversial. Throughout the 
main text and the Bibliographical Notes it has seemed 



PREFACE IX 

preferable to emphasize the more trustworthy sources 
of information rather than to expose the shortcom- 
ings of unreliable works. Corrections of errors not 
infrequently detected even in many standard sources 
of reference have usually been made without com- 
ment. Even in the single detail of determining the 
dates of stage production of plays, full controversial 
evidence would have far exceeded the limits, as well 
as the purpose, of this volume. In the interest of 
accuracy, the Bibliographical Notes and footnotes 
supply definite information as to specific texts and 
editions cited, and the means of verifying statements 
of fact have been freely supplied even at the risk 
that the author may become an ' enginer hoist with 
his own petar.' It would be difficult to exaggerate 
the difficulties of accurate investigation, especially in 
those eighteenth-century theatrical records which re- 
flect the careless gossip, anecdote, and reminiscences 
of the green-room. The effort to reduce the chances 
of error has included a checking at the British 
Museum and Bodleian Libraries of the entire proof, 
independent of the manuscript, and a similar recheck- 
ing of the page proof, so far as possible, at the Yale 
University Library. Yet I can hardly hope to have 
avoided all the pitfalls of the way, especially where 
it has often been overgrown with long neglect. 

In a work which has spread over many years and 
over so broad a field, it is impossible to acknowledge 
fully the many debts constantly incurred. Yet by 
far my deepest obligation is to Sir Adolphus W. 
Ward. The extent to which all students of the 
drama are dependent on his History of English 
Dramatic Literature can best be realized by one who 



X PREFACE 

fares forth on the unfrequented seas of eighteenth- 
century English drama, deprived of the friendly charts 
that have thus far safeguarded him. My personal 
debt, however, exceeds the common measure of obli- 
gation to Doctor Ward's scholarship. From his first 
generous endorsement of my general plan, his friendly 
counsel has been unfailing. During the past three 
or four years he has followed the entire work with 
stimulating and suggestive annotation of the manu- 
script, and with a constant and cordial encouragement 
which can here be acknowledged but imperfectly. 
It is a pleasant privilege, also, to recognize a deep 
and long-standing indebtedness to Professor Henry A. 
Beers of Yale. Many of the critical views here ex- 
pressed were essentially derived from a graduate 
course under his direction, and doubtless these def- 
inite obligations are enlarged by many unconscious 
reminiscences of his thought or phrase. To other 
colleagues at Yale I am indebted in various ways — 
in particular, to Professor Cross, for reviewing in 
proof the chapter on Fielding, and to Mr. Andrew 
Keogh, of the Yale University Library, for frequent 
and unwearying assistance. Much of this work would 
have been impossible without constant access to the 
British Museum and Bodleian Libraries, and its 
progress has been greatly furthered by the courteous 
aid of various officials at these places, and at the 
Cambridge University Library and the Bibliotheque 
Nationale. 

This work is essentially based on original texts 
and documents. In the earlier drafts of the manu- 
script, quotations from plays or theatrical documents 
were regularly taken from the original texts, but 



PREFACE Xi 

since imperfections of typography and of scene di- 
vision often involved correction or elaborate textual 
annotation, it seemed better eventually to modify a 
method of reference often inconvenient to the reader, 
and to utilize, to the extent indicated in the Bibli- 
ographical Notes, certain generally accessible modern 
critical editions and reprints. Dates of plays given 
in the main text are habitually those of their stage 
production, and have largely been determined through 
contemporary newspapers, magazines, playbills, and 
other definite records, such as authentic dated letters 
and diaries. These dates, it should be noted, often 
do not coincide with those of the first printed editions. 
Contemporary works of general character, such as 
memoirs, theatrical histories, and even autobiog- 
raphies, have often proved very unreliable, but the 
best of them have supplied much valuable material. 
Though the present work is but incidentally con- 
cerned with questions of individual biography, the 
Dictionary of National Biography has proved of much 
assistance. Its statements have been largely verified, 
however, by independent investigation of early records, 
and some minor inaccuracies have thus been corrected. 
The Bibliographical Notes and the footnotes to the 
main text supply references to works consulted in the 
preparation of this volume, and indicate, at least to a 
considerable degree, those that have proved especially 
useful. Many of the works listed have contributed, 
at most, only indirectly to the present pages, but I 
wish to acknowledge as fully and as cordially as 
possible the investigations of previous writers. It 
would be idle to claim acquaintance with every work 
bearing on any part of the wide range of dramatic 



xii PREFACE 

literature and theatrical history here discussed, but I 
have sought to acquaint myself as far as possible 
with the results of modern critical study as well as 
with the contemporary literature of the various 
periods. 

There remains one matter in which a personal 
reference seems unavoidable. Some of the results 
of my investigation of eighteenth-century drama have 
already been formally presented. The Major Dramas 
of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, published in the Ath- 
enceum Press Series in 1906, gives a much more 
detailed study of Sheridan and his relation to Eng- 
lish drama than suits the proportions of the present 
work. It has seemed unnecessary to reproduce 
here the references and bibliographical data there 
accessible. For the tenth volume (191 3) of The Cam- 
bridge History of English Literature, I prepared the 
fourth chapter, entitled 'The Drama and the Stage.' 
This section reviews the general aspects of Queen 
Anne drama and continues the critical account of 
eighteenth-century drama down to Goldsmith and 
Sheridan. Naturally, no essential modification of 
general viewpoints was possible, and a certain amount 
of duplication has been inevitable. That the work 
for the Cambridge History was undertaken at Doctor 
Ward's request, after he had in hand the manuscript 
of the present book, may account for my assumption 
of a dual r61e. Numerous differences in the selection 
and arrangement of the common material available 
for critical use, together with the marked distinction 
between the more extensive method of bibliography 
permitted in the Cambridge History and the more se- 
lective method in the present Bibliographical Notes, 



PREFACE xiii 

make these two works, it is hoped, supplementary 
rather than identical in character. Yet even if the 
history of eighteenth-century English drama has, in 
any sense, become a twice-told tale, I trust that the 
retelling of a much neglected story may find some 
listeners as generous as the kindly critic who has 
befriended both versions, and to whom I am privileged 
to inscribe this volume. 

Yale University, 
1 November, 1913 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Contrasts between Elizabethan and Res- 
toration Drama i 

II. The Dramatic Interregnum, i 642-1 660 . 14 
III. The Beginnings of Restoration Drama and 

Opera 30 

, IV. Dryden, and the Heroic Drama ... 53 

V. Etherege and Wycherley (Shadwell) . 71 

VI. Dryden, Lee, and Otway .... 88 

VII. Aspects of Minor Restoration Drama . 104 

VIII. CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR . . 120 

IX. The Moral Reawakening . . . .141 
X. Some Aspects of Queen Anne Drama . .166 
XI. Pantomime and Ballad Opera . . .183 
XII. Voltaire's Influence and Bourgeois Trag- 
edy 195 

XIII. Fielding and the Licensing Act . . .213 

XIV. The Garrick Era 227 

XV. The Lighter Drama of the Garrick Era . 245 

XVI. The Rise and Height of Sentimental 
1 

Drama 264 

XVII. Goldsmith and the Reaction in Comedy . 277 

XVIII. Richard Brinsley Sheridan .... 291 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 315 

INDEX 341 



ENGLISH DRAMA OF THE RESTORA- 
TION AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

CHAPTER I 

CONTRASTS BETWEEN ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION 
DRAMA 

Modern English drama may be said to begin with 
the Restoration of 1660. The term ' modern' admits 
various definitions, but a convenient distinction may 
be made between the earlier period of English drama 
ending with the closing of the theatres, in 1642, and 
the more modern period beginning, formally, with the 
creation of the Patent Theatres, under Charles II. 
The history of a literature is, indeed, too continuous 
to permit rigid division into precise periods. Even 
the interregnum when theatres were under Puritan 
ban does not, in reality, break a continuous dramatic 
tradition. The doors that closed against the earlier 
drama reopened to admit its reentrance to the boards. 
Yet never has the course of English drama been inter- 
rupted so decisively as during the years when theatres 
were closed and drama underwent almost total eclipse. 
The ordinance of 2 September, 1642, which decreed 
that 'publike Stage-Playes shall cease, and bee for- 
borne,' * marked, rather than caused, the end of that 
great dramatic era which had risen to full height in 
Shakespeare and had already lapsed into literary and 

1 Facsimile reprint in Joseph Knight's edition, 1886, of Roscius 
Anglicanus; Journals of the House of Lords, V, 336. 

B I 



2 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

moral decadence. The wave of creative power had 
well-nigh spent itself before reaching the barrier set 
up to arrest its progress. Originality had yielded 
largely to conventionality. There was dearth of 
poetry and excess of rhetoric. Comedy portrayed 
manners rather than the man. Tragedy sullied 
itself with gross passion and lust. Furthermore, the 
tragedy of blood on the mimic stage was destined to 
give way to the actual tragedy of civil war. Even 
before the formal suppression of the theatres, the 
Master of the Revels found his occupation gone, for 
his register closed with the significant entry: 'Here 
ended my allowance of plaies, for the war began in 
Aug. 1642.' * 

The years between 1642 and 1660 formed a virtual, 
but not absolute, interregnum in the history of the 
drama and of the theatre. Closer examination of the 
actual conditions prevalent during the period will 
presently show that, despite severe threats of the law, 
the drama maintained a semblance of life. It had, 
however, no genuine vitality. With the creation of 
two companies of actors, under letters patent issued 
by Charles II, 21 August, 1660, and with the establish- 
ment of the two 'Patent Theatres/ the period of 
modern English drama may be said to have been 
inaugurated. It will be important hereafter to em- 
phasize constantly the essential continuity of Eng- 
lish dramatic development. It is, perhaps, equally 
important, at the outset, to review broadly, even 
at the risk of repeating familiar facts, some of 

1 Sir Henry Herbert's ' Office-book,' cited in Malone's Shakspeare, 
1790 edition, Vol. I, Part II, p. 237. 



I ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA 3 

the salient differences between earlier English drama 
and that which begins with the Restoration. 

Even in the mechanism of stage presentation, the 
Restoration theatre is distinct from its Elizabethan 
predecessor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to 
consider here the disputed questions of Elizabethan 
scenery and of the sporadic appearances of actresses 
in England before the Restoration. It is enough to 
recognize that the general adoption of movable 
scenery and the regular employment of women as 
actors are noteworthy departures from the~habitual 
usages of the Elizabethan stage. These and similar 
changes which affected primarily the theatrical man- 
ager or producer were not, to be sure, without direct 
influence upon the dramatist. The playwright is 
never independent of the conditions of actual stage 
production. Yet superficial differences between the 
Elizabethan and Restoration stages are less striking 
than fundamental differences in the drama they pre- 
sented. How far the old order of drama changed in 
yielding place to new may be suggested by some 
general contrasts drawn between Elizabethan and 
Restoration drama. 

It is a commonplace of criticism that the Eliza- 
bethan age is creative, the Restoration critical. In 
an uncreative age, criticism and satire become prom- 
inent. Dryden, the most commanding figure of 
Restoration drama, was less dramatist than critic 
and satirist. Broadly speaking, Elizabethan drama 
is spontaneous and original, Restoration drama arti- 
ficial and imitative. Elizabethan comedy at its 
height is creative ; Restoration comedy at its best is 



4 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

imitative of the fashions and follies of the beau monde. 
The one notably interprets character, the other 
chiefly reproduces characteristics. Between Falstaff 
and Sir Fopling Flutter is the difference between a 
masterly portrait and an admirable photograph. 
Again, the Elizabethans were impatient of artificial 
restraints. Shakespeare violated the dramatic unities ; 
Dryden advocated them, even if his practice did not 
always square with his precept. The Elizabethans 
were fond of blending tragedy with comedy; the 
Restoration playwrights usually inclined to separate 
them. The Elizabethans adapted freely materials 
from various sources, but their Restoration followers 
often borrowed manner as well as matter from Con- 
tinental models. Restoration drama, in a word, 
lacks the spontaneity and originality of Elizabethan 
drama — imitates rather than creates — recognizes, 
even though it does not follow implicitly, conventional 
rules. 

No less marked is the contrast between Elizabethan 
and Restoration drama in breadth of scope. The for- 
mer is national, the latter local. Shakespeare sounds 
the whole gamut of life, but the comic dramatists of 
the Restoration repeat the notes of fashion, frivolity, 
and vice. Comedy in Dryden's age represents pri- 
marily only the life of the court. Hero and heroine 
know the world, but the world- is London. The 
1 country ' becomes a term of banishment with which to 
threaten wives not clever enough to hoodwink their 
husbands. Shakespeare portrays all the passions; 
Restoration comedy constantly reverts to the single 
passion of unlawful love. Tragedy, which flowed 



I ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA 5 

full and free in Elizabethan days, is channelled in 
'heroic drama' between artificial banks difficult to 
surmount. 

If Restoration drama lacks breadth of scope, it 
lacks also depth of feeling and height of poetic im- 
agination. Even in rhymed and blank- verse tragedies 
there is dearth of poetic fancy. Comedy abandons 
poetry for prose. Romantic comedy yields to the 
comedy of manners. Common sense replaces poetic 
sensibility. Wit is more common than humour. The 
intellectual faculties are exalted above the emotional. 
It is an age which sees the founding of the Royal 
Society, and which has philosophers like Hobbes and 
Locke, and scientists like Newton, but poets are 
few. Rarely does even Restoration tragedy utter 

those melodious bursts, that fill 
The spacious times of great Elizabeth 
With sounds that echo still. 

The attitude toward Shakespeare is a valuable 
sidelight upon Dryden's period. Shakespeare was 
rewritten to suit an age which found Elizabethan 
genius rude and unrefined. Native wood-notes were 
too wild in days when Dry den deemed Shakespeare 
'untaught, unpractised, in a barbarous age.' 1 Nahum 
Tate perverted King Lear with a happy ending. 
Dryden and D'Avenant with profane hands broke 
the charm of The Tempest. ' The Tragedy of Macbeth, 
alter 'd by Sir William Davenant; being drest in all it's 
Finery, as new Cloath's, new Scenes, Machines, as 
flyings for the Witches ; with all the Singing and Danc- 

1 Prologue to Dryden's version of Troilus and Cressida. 



6 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ing in it ... it being all Excellently perform'd, 
being in the nature of an Opera, it Recompenc'd 
double the Expence.' 1 Samuel Pepys, a confirmed 
and by no means unrepresentative playgoer, found 
Midsummer Night's Dream 'the most insipid ridic- 
ulous play that ever I saw in my life,' 2 and Othello 
'a mean thing' 3 in comparison with The Adventures of 
Five Hours. Beyond the Restoration horizon lay 
the forest of Arden and the seacoast of Bohemia. 

But perhaps the most significant contrast between 
Elizabethan and Restoration drama is in moral 
tone. The immorality of Restoration comedy has 
become a byword, yet the subject is too vital to be 
dismissed lightly. Judged by modern standards, 
Elizabethan drama admitted at its best considerable 
vulgarity and indecency of speech, and in the period 
of its decline showed increasing tendencies toward 
grossness of thought as well as freedom of phrase. 
Distinction should, obviously, be made _ between 
frankness of expression and un cleanness of mind. 
The standard of permissible expression is, in a sense, 
matter of custom rather than of morality. Restraint 
of phrase counts less than purity of intention, for 
immorality may He as much in what is to be read 
between the lines as in what actually appears on them. 
Yet, with every fair allowance, it must be admitted 
that Elizabethan drama is often not merely coarse 
but impure. Not even in its decadence, however, 
does it touch the depths of Restoration immorality. 

1 Dowries, Roscins Anglicanus, 1708, p. 33. 

2 Diary, 29 §ept., 1662. Wheatley edition, II, 347- 
s IMd., 20 Aug., 1666. Wheatley edition, V, 407. 



i ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA 7 

Restoration comedy differs fundamentally from Eliza- 
bethan in deliberately enlisting the sympathy of the 
audience in favour of the wrong-doer. The earlier 
drama, with all its sins, inclines to award dramatic 
justice, however belated, to the virtuous. Restora- 
tion comedy, disdaining fifth-act compromise, often 
lets vice rampant in the earlier acts remain vice 
triumphant. The curtain falls with plaudits for the 
country wife who carries out a London intrigue with- 
out detection, and with derisive laughter for the hus- 
band who alone remains unconscious of his dishonour. 
Restoration comedy flaunts shamelessly the blazon 
of the 'scarlet letter.' It laughs not merely indul- 
gently at vice, but harshly at the semblance of virtue. 
Cavalier contempt went so far as to regard the show 
of virtue as proof of hypocrisy. Cynicism replaced 
religion. Piety was considered bourgeois. Contempt 
for hypocrisy, however, did not extend to the hypoc- 
risy of the intriguant. All was fair in amorous 
intrigue. The seducer who outwitted the deluded 
husband became not the villain but the hero. In 
the women deception was both a necessity and a 
virtue. Restoration comedy showed less the frailty 
of human nature than the strength of animal passion. 
So utterly subversive of moral standards is Res- 
toration comedy that an attempt has been made to 
defend it on the ground that it dealt with an unreal 
world to which no ordinary standards are applicable. 
This brilliant fallacy is put forward by Charles Lamb 
in his essay On the Artificial Comedy of the Last 
Century. The characters of Restoration comedy 
seem to Lamb to have escaped from %he actual world 



8 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

where moral law still reigns into 'the Utopia of gal- 
lantry, where pleasure is duty, and the manners 
perfect freedom. . . . We are not to judge them by 
our usages. No reverend institutions are insulted 
by their proceedings, — for they have none among 
them. No peace of families is violated, — for no 
family ties exist among them. No purity of the 
marriage bed is stained, — for none is supposed to have 
a being. No deep affections are disquieted, — no holy 
wedlock bands are snapped asunder, — for affection's 
depth and wedded faith are not of the growth of that 
soil. There is neither right nor wrong, — gratitude or 
its opposite, — claim or duty, — paternity or sonship.' 
But Restoration comedy was l artificial' only in so 
far as the court life which it mirrored was artificial. 
It portrayed all too faithfully the Vanity Fair of 
the Merry Monarch. 

Macaulay, with the heavy hand of common 
sense, relentlessly crushed to earth Lamb's poetic 
fancy. His essay on the Comic Dramatists of the 
Restoration 1 swept away specious pleas in defence 
of artificial comedy. 'The morality of the Country 
Wife and the Old Bachelor,' he writes, 'is the morality, 
not, as Mr. Charles Lamb maintains, of an unreal 
world, but of a world which is a great deal too real. . . . 
Here the garb, the manners, the topics of conver- 
sation are those of the real town and of the passing 
day. The hero is in all superficial accomplishments 
exactly the fine gentleman whom every youth in 

1 Often entitled Leigh Hunt, of whose edition of The Dramatic 
Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar Macaulay's 
essay was ostensibly a review. 



I ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA 9 

the pit would gladly resemble. The heroine is the 
fine lady whom every youth in the pit would gladly 
marry. The scene is laid in some place which is as 
well known to the audience as their own houses. . . . 
A hundred little touches are employed to make the 
fictitious world appear like the actual world. And 
the immorality is of a sort which never can be out of 
date, and which all the force of religion, law, and 
public opinion united can but imperfectly restrain.' 
Macaulay utterly scouts the idea that Restoration 
dramatists deal with an un-moral world. ' Morality 
constantly enters into that world, a sound morality, 
and an unsound morality ; the sound morality to be 
insulted, derided, associated with everything mean 
and hateful; the unsound morality to be set off to 
every advantage, and inculcated by all methods, 
direct and indirect. It is not the fact that none of 
the inhabitants of this conventional world feel rev- 
erence for sacred institutions and family ties. 
Fondlewife, Pinchwife, every person in short of 
narrow understanding and disgusting manners, ex- 
presses that reverence strongly. The heroes and 
heroines, too, have a moral code of their own, an ex- 
ceedingly bad one, but not, as Mr. Charles Lamb 
seems to think, a code existing only in the imagination 
of dramatists. It is, on the contrary, a code actually 
received and obeyed by great numbers of people. 
We need not go to Utopia or Fairyland to find them.' 
The final conclusion is driven home inexorably. ' The 
question is simply this, whether a man of genius who con- 
stantly and systematically endeavours to make. . . . 
[evil] character attractive, by uniting it with beauty, 



IO ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

grace, dignity, spirit, a high social position, popu- 
larity, literature, wit, taste, knowledge Of the world, 
brilliant success in every undertaking, does or does 
not make an ill use of his powers. We own that we 
are unable to understand how this question can be 
answered in any way but one/ 

Macaulay's blunt dogmatism has sometimes irri- 
tated the artistic sympathies of sensitive critics. 
Some have been tempted to err with Lamb rather than 
take sides with Macaulay. Yet contemporary evi- 
dence is significant in this clash between sense and 
sensibility. It will suffice to mention two differ- 
ent but equally convincing documents. Hamilton's 
Memoirs of Count Grammont gives testimony of the 
court ; the Diary of Samuel Pepys gives testimony of 
the city. The Diary is both too extensive and too 
familiar to permit minute comment. Pepys, himself 
not unaware of human frailty, was doubtless readier 
to extenuate than to set down aught in malice, yet 
his pages echo the gossip and scandal of the court of 
the Merry Monarch, the notes of changing fashions 
and unchanging folly and vice. Wide differences 
there are between the quaint entries in the Diary 
of Pepys and the gay, vivacious, graceful pages of 
Hamilton, but the differences are of style rather than 
of substance. In the Memoirs live again the King 
and his courtesans, the profligate Duke of Buckingham, 
and the Earl of Rochester, who boasted that he had 
been drunk for five years at a stretch. To Hamilton, 
Grammont is the beau ideal of the age. 'It is this 
indefinable brilliancy, which, in war, in love, in gam- 
ing, and in the various stages of a long life, has 



i ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA n 

rendered the Count de Grammont the admiration of 
his age, and the delight of every country wherein he 
has displayed his engaging wit, dispensed his generosity 
and magnificence, or practised his inconstancy. ' 1 
Macaulay might have termed Grammont an unprin- 
cipled gambler, a dishonourable adventurer, and an 
abandoned profligate. Late in life the Chevalier 
looked back upon the past with Shallow's smack of 
satisfaction in 'the days that we have seen/ but with- 
out need of magnifying glasses. The adventures 
in the Memoirs are one with the incidents of the 
Restoration stage. Miss Price and Miss Jennings, in 
merry mood, diguise themselves as orange-girls, visit 
the theatre, and encounter Beau Sidney andKilli- 
grew. Rochester, with the devilish ingenuity of 
Wycherley's Horner, practises intrigue in the disguise 
of 'a famous German doctor.' Lady Chesterfield, 
taken off by her husband to the country, consoles 
herself by writing her lover of her sufferings in ' the 
most horrible of prisons' in phrases which voice 
the familiar sentiments of Restoration heroines on 
the stage: 'Whatever the country affords most 
melancholy, in this season, presents itself to my view 
on all sides : surrounded by impassable roads, out of 
one window I see nothing but precipices ; but wherever 
I turn my eyes within doors, I meet those of a jealous 
husband, still more insupportable than the sad ob- 
jects that encompass me.' 2 Incidents, adventures, 
and attitude are one with those of 'artificial comedy.' 
The world of Restoration comedy was not Utopia, but 
London. 

1 Memoirs of Count Grammont, Goodwin edition, I, 3. 

2 Ibid., II, 3-4. . 



12 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

The general contrasts drawn in the preceding pages 
between Elizabethan and Restoration drama have 
been so unfavourable to the later period that it may 
be asked what defence can be made for Restoration 
drama. Defence, it may at once be answered, is 
not the business of the historian. His task is rather 
to set forth the facts as he finds them, and to interpret 
them, to the best of his ability, not as a special pleader 
but as an impartial judge. Nor should it be necessary 
for him to try to heighten lesser peaks in the range of 
English drama by limiting his horizon to the im- 
mediate foreground. It would be possible, no doubt, 
since Gulliver becomes a giant in Lilliput, to magnify 
the achievements of Restoration drama by lowering 
the standard of judgment. Study of the beginning 
and growth of modern English drama does not, 
however, need questionable aids to give it value or 
enhance its interest. Despite its limitations and 
shortcomings, the drama of the past two centuries 
and a half has been linked too closely with the lives 
and interests of the English people to be dismissed 
as unworthy of serious notice. Whether comedy 
laughs with the sins of the Restoration, or weeps with 
the sentimentality of the eighteenth century, it 
bears the form and pressure of the age. Even when 
tragedy seems most aloof from human hearts, it won 
the plaudits of its passing day. "The drama's laws 
the drama's patrons give' — at least, in large measure. 
Furthermore, in the period whose development is 
about to be traced, the comedy of manners comes to 
its fullest development. Tragedy learns to speak the 
accents of prose as well as the cadence of verse, and 



i ELIZABETHAN AND RESTORATION DRAMA 13 

finds suffering and sorrow in bourgeois life. Stage- 
craft schools itself with experience, and acting touches 
noble heights. Opera and pantomime rise to do 
battle for popular favour with regular drama. Gain 
and loss, success and failure, play their parts in the 
varying record. And because the story of modern 
English drama, with its conflicts and struggles, is 
essentially human, it is itself a great drama of English 
national life. 



CHAPTER II 

THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 

The period between the closing of the theatres, in 
1642, and the formal resumption of theatrical activity 
under royal patent, in 1660, may conveniently be 
termed the dramatic interregnum. Throughout this 
period, especially toward its close, the drama main- 
tained some semblance of life, but it had no genuine 
vitality. During the civil war most of the actors 
seem to have enlisted on the Royalist side, in natural 
loyalty to the party which had supported them against 
Puritan hostility. They had not forgotten that 
Prynne's attack upon them had been visited with 
fines, imprisonment, and even physical punishment. 
Under the commonwealth, however, the hand of the 
law was against them. An ordinance of 22 October, 
1647, providing that actors in 'Stage Plays, Inter- 
ludes, or other Common Plays' be ' punished as 
Rogues, according to Law,' * was followed by the 
drastic ordinance of n February, 1648, which em- 
powered the Lord Mayor and others to destroy 
galleries, seats, and boxes in the theatres, to flog 
actors, and to cause them to enter into recognizances 
'never to Act or play any Plaies or Interludes any 
more/ and to fine spectators for the benefit of the 

1 Journals of the House of Lords, IX, 490; W. C. Hazlitt, The 
English Drama and Stage, pp. 64-65. 

14 



chap. n. THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 15 

poor. 1 The distractions of civir'war and the severity 
of the law thus militated alike against the stage. 

The cessation of dramatic and theatrical activity 
between 1642 and 1660 was, nevertheless, virtual 
rather than absolute. Even legal deterrents did not 
prove wholly effectual. 'When the Wars were over/ 
says Historia Histrionica: An Historical Account of 
the English-Stage (1699), 'and the Royalists totally 
Subdued; most of 'em [the actors] who were left 
alive gathered to London, and for a Subsistence 
endeavour'd to revive their Old Trade, privately. 
They made up one Company out of all the Scatter 'd 
Members of Several; and in the Winter before the 
King's Murder, 1648, They ventured to Act some Plays, 
with as much caution and privacy as cou'd be, at the 
Cockpit. 1 After three or four days they were interrup- 
ted while presenting a tragedy and carried off to prison 
for a time. 'In Oliver's time, they used to Act pri- 
vately, three or four Miles, or more, out of Town, now 
here, now there,' but such performances were rather 
surreptitious. 

While more ambitious dramatic ventures thus ran 
the hazards of the law, the edicts against stage-plays 
seem not to have been applied rigorously to various 
minor theatrical pieces. The very title of The 
Actors Remonstrance, or Complaint: for the silencing 
of their profession, and banishment from their sever all 
Play-houses (1643) can<s attention to the players' 
'grievances, for their restraint ; especially since Stage- 
playes, only of all publike recreations are prohibited ; 

1 Hazlitt, op. cit., pp. 65-70; Journals of the House of Lords, X, 
41-42. 



1 6 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

the exercise at the Beares Colledge [Bear- Garden], 
and the motions of Puppets being still in force and 
vigour.' The pamphlet itself protests that 'Puppit- 
plays, which are not so much valuable as the very 
musique betweene each Act at ours, are still up with 
uncontrolled allowance, witnesse the famous motion 
of Bell and the Dragon, so frequently visited at 
Holboume-bridge ; these passed Christmas Holi- 
day es.' To the same effect runs the testimony of 
Francis Kirkman as to the production of ' drolls ' 1 : 
'When the publique Theatres were shut up, and the 
Actors forbidden to present us with any of their 
Tragedies, because we had enough of that in earnest ; 
and Comedies, because the Vices of the Age were too 
lively and smartly represented ; then all that we could 
divert our selves with were these humours and pieces 
of Plays, which passing under the Name of a merry 
conceited Fellow, called Bottom the Weaver, Simpleton 
the Smith, John Swabber, or some such title, were only 
allowed us, and that but by stealth too, and under 
pretence of Rope-dancing, or the like; and these 
being all that was permitted us, great was the con- 
fluence of the Auditors.' Kirkman then pays tribute 
to 'the incomparable Robert Cox, who was not only 
the principal Actor, but also the Contriver and Author 
of most of these Farces/ and points out that 'these 
Compositions . . . were the fittest for the Actors to 
Represent, there being little Cost in Cloaths, which 
often were in great danger to be seized by the then 
Souldiers.' 

The 'drolls' were short pieces, usually of a comic 
1 Preface to The Wits: or, Sport upon Sport (1673). 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 17 

nature, and often culled from regular plays. As 
early as 1662, the bookseller Francis Kirkman pub- 
lished a collection of them entitled, The Wits, or, 
Sport upon Sport. In Select Pieces of Drollery, 
Digested into Scenes by way of Dialogue. In the various 
editions of this popular work the different terms, 
1 drolls/ 'humours/ ' droll-humours/ ' drolleries/ and 
'farces/ seem to be used with little or no distinction 
in meaning. The adoption of the single term 'droll' 
may, accordingly, avoid confusion. The drolls of 
the dramatic interregnum must not, however, be 
confused with the earlier puppet-shows sometimes 
designated by the same term, or with the non-dra- 
matic versifications found in such a collection as the 
Westminster Drolleries of 1672. With the revival 
of formal drama after the Restoration, the drolls 
attracted less favour/but the title of the 1673 edition 
of Kirkman's collection is a valuable indication of 
their previous scope and popularity : ' The Wits : or, 
Sport upon Sport. Being A Curious Collection of 
several Drols and Farces, Presented and Shewn For 
the Merriment and Delight of Wise Men, and the 
Ignorant: As they have been sundry times Acted 
In Publique, and Private, In London at Bartholomew 
In the Countrey at other Faires. In Halls and 
Taverns. On several Mountebancks Stages, At 
Charing-Cross, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and other places. 
By Several Stroking Players, Fools, and Fidlers, 
And the Mountebancks Zanies. With loud Laughter, 
and great Applause. Written I know not when, by 
several Persons, I know not who; But now newly 
Collected by your Old Friend to please you, Francis 
Kirkman/ 



l8 ENGLISH DRAMA 



CHAP. 



Kirkman's tribute to Robert Cox as ' the Contriver 
and Author of most of these Farces ' may prove some- 
what misleading. Most of these farces can, in fact, 
be traced to Elizabethan sources. The 1672 and 
1673 editions of Kirkman's collection contain two 
very brief pieces based on the Old Testament, King 
Ahasuerus and Queen Esther, and King Solomon's 
Wisdom, but usually a marked preference is shown for 
excerpts from Elizabethan plays. It is preferable 
to select for more detailed examination the 1662 
edition of The Wits, or, Sport upon Sport, since its 
early date gives strong presumption that most of the 
pieces were used during the interregnum. This 
collection contains twenty-seven pieces, of which two 
drawn from Shakespearean plays may serve as con- 
venient examples. The Grave-Makers takes the 
grave-diggers' scene from Hamlet, The Bouncing 
Knight [Falstaff] includes most of two Eastcheap 
tavern scenes and parts of the scenes that include 
Falstaff's description of his ragged company and 
his soliloquy on ' Honour,' and concludes with Fal- 
staff's counterfeit death on the battle field, Prince 
Hal's eulogy, and Falstaff's resurrection. Striking 
testimony to the popularity of Beaumont and Fletcher 
is afforded by the fact that of the remaining pieces 
in this collection about half are apparently from plays 
in which they either collaborated or had an important 
hand. That performances of Beaumont and Flet- 
cher's A King and No King 1 and Fletcher's The Bloody 

1 J. P. Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry, 1879 edition, 
II, 37, 40. Collier's contradiction in dates does not affect the 
main fact. 



JW^ 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 19 

Brother should have been forcibly interrupted, 1 while 
lighter passages from their works appear to have 
escaped censure, seems hardly consistent with Macau- 
lay's famous dictum that the Puritans objected to 
bear-baiting not because it gave pain to the bear but 
because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Yet 
Kirkman's Preface shows that various devices were 
adopted to cloak the real nature of some of these 
entertainments. Whatever the reasons were for their 
comparative immunity from attack, the drolls main- 
tained effectively that comic spirit which needed only 
the formal reopening of the theatres to find free utter- 
ance. They bear significant testimony to the con- 
tinuity of Elizabethan dramatic tradition even during 
the interregnum. 

Further proof of the maintenance of some interest in 
the drama during the interregnum may be drawn 
from the continued publication of dramatic work. 
Various plays of Shirley, Quarles, D'Avenant, Baron, 
the Killigrews, Cokayne, Chamberlayne, and others, 
appeared in print. Even under the commonwealth, 
Cavalier resentment sometimes found a way to 
vent, in printed drama, feelings that were debarred 
utterance on the public stage. In 1648 were pub- 
lished the two parts of a play whose title-pages give 
sufficient indication of party f eeling : l Craf tie Crom- 
well : or, Oliver ordering our New State. A Tragi- 
Comedie. Wherein is discovered the Trayterous 
undertakings and proceedings of the said Nol, and 
his Levelling Crew. Written by Mercurius Melan- 
cholicus' and 'The Second part of Crafty Crumwell 
1 Eistoria Histrionica, 1699, pp. 8-9. 



20 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

or Oliver in his glory as King. A Trage Commedie 
Wherein is presented, the late treasonable undertak- 
ings, and proceedings, of the Rebells, their murther- 
ing of Capt. Burley, with their underhand workings 
to betray their KING. Written by Marcurius Prag- 
maticus. 1 It was a portent of that Cavalier spirit 
which, after the Revolution, could drop the mask 
of anonymity, and turn to rend its persecutors. 

The evidence already presented is enough to prove 
that the dramatic interregnum interrupts, but does 
not wholly break, the continuous course of English 
drama. Yet publication of plays, sporadic attempts 
to perform regular plays, and even frequent produc- 
tions of drolls imparted to the drama artificial stimu- 
lus rather than genuine vitality. As the period of 
the commonwealth drew toward its close, however, 
the languid pulse of drama was quickened by the 
stimulus of a more vital force. This more definite 
reawakening of dramatic activity was due pri- 
marily to Sir William D'Avenant (1606-1668). In 
D'Avenant's case, as in that of the drama itself, the 
interregnum arrested, but did not fully check, dra- 
matic effort. D'Avenant himself may be regarded as 
the most conspicuous link between Elizabethan and 
Restoration drama. As the successor of Ben Jonson 
to the poet laureateship, he is, in a sense, heir to the 
Elizabethans. More literally, tradition has sought 
to link the story of his birth with the name of Shake- 
speare. Shakespearean blood can be traced, at all 
events, in the veins of D'Avenant's dramatic adapta- 
tions. His early plays, often resembling Beaumont 
and Fletcher's romantic dramas, antedate the closing 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 21 

of the theatres; The Siege of Rhodes (1656) and its 
immediate successors mark the reawakening of dra- 
matic impulses during the interregnum ; his later plays 
belong to the opening of the Restoration period, but 
are chiefly Shakespearean adaptations. Through 
him the Elizabethan birthright, however debased 
by the misuse of years, was transmitted to Restora- 
tion playwrights. 

It was natural that D'Avenant, who had tasted 
dramatic success in the decade before the closing 
of the theatres, and who had been prevented by force 
of adverse circumstances from profiting by the patent 
empowering him, in 1639, to erect a playhouse, should 
seek an early opportunity to resume his dramatic 
career. Under the commonwealth, his activities in 
behalf of the Royalists brought upon him imprison- 
ment and even the fear of death. During the closing 
years of the commonwealth, however, the edicts 
against dramatic productions seem not to have been 
enforced with their former rigour. Yet D'Avenant 
was careful to disguise the real nature of his new 
theatrical projects. In seeking the support of Sir 
Bulstrode Whitelocke, the Lord Keeper, for his venture, 
he took pains to term his work 'our opera.' 1 The 
title-page of the 1656 quarto of The Siege of Rhodes 
betrays equal caution in describing the piece as ' Made 
a Representation by the Art of Prospective in Scenes, 
And the Story sung in Recitative Musick.' Scenery 
and music thus became stalking-horses under the 
presentation of which D'Avenant shot his dramatic 

1 Letter to Whitelocke, under date 3 September, 1656, Whitelocke's 
Memorials of the English Affairs, 1732 edition, p. 650. 



22 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

boltsy His first tentative theatrical essay was given 
at~a private house, though the taking of admission 
fees gives to the performance a quasi-public character. 
This First Days Entertainment at Rutland-House, 
By Declamations and Mustek : After the manner of the 
Ancients, was produced in 1656, though it did not 
appear in print until the following year. It consists 
of two disputes, one between Diogenes and Aris- 
tophanes on the general question of public entertain- 
ments, the other between 'a Parisian and a Londoner 
in the Livery Robes of both Cities, who Declaim 
concerning the prae-eminence of Paris and London.' 
Each dispute concludes with a song and chorus, 
while the four long harangues are each preceded 
by appropriate music. The epilogue shows the 
underlying hope of reviving real plays in its final 
hint to the audience to 'get them if you can.' 

But D'Avenant was not content with suggestion 
merely. Boldly developing the use of music and 
scenery, he produced in The Siege of Rhodes (1656) 
what has been regarded usually as the first English 
opera, and sometimes as the first English heroic 
play. The masque, with its music, scenery, and 
dancing, had already anticipated in private entertain- 
ments salient features which opera was now to de- 
velop on the regular stage. Elements of the heroic 
play had, likewise, already appeared in Elizabethan 
days. Through hero-plays like Marlowe's Tambur- 
laine, through the heroic romances of Beaumont and 
Fletcher, through such tragi-comedies as those of 
Massinger and Shirley, may be traced, at least 
roughly, a line of descent toward the heroic play. 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 23 

Long before the Continental impress was stamped 
upon Restoration tragedy, the English stage had 
become acquainted with many essential elements of 
heroic drama. Love and honour 1 had already fought 
their way through sensational entanglements to 
surprising denouements. The horrors of the early 
tragedy of blood had been largely mitigated, and 
virtue and valour had often been crowned not with 
death, but with victory. Yet despite deep under- 
currents which flow from early sources, the stream of 
English drama may, with The Siege of Rhodes, be 
said to take a new and noteworthy turning. 

Whether or not this piece is to be regarded as a 
heroic play is largely a matter of arbitrary definition. 
Those who associate 'heroic drama' primarily with 
the use of the ' heroic couplet ' usually set as its extent 
the years from 1664 to 1678. This, certainly, is its 
period of fullest development and authority. Those 
who prefer to accentuate the elements suggested by 
the very term 'heroic' rather than the strict rhymed 
verse form are willing to admit wider limits. With- 
out attempting to settle a controversy whose conclu- 
sion varies with the premises adopted, it may be con- 
venient to accept the strict limits set for heroic 
drama proper, at the same time insisting upon its 
intimate relation with plays that fail to conform to 
the rigid definition. Dryden, the most conspicuous 
advocate and exemplar of the 'heroic couplet' in 
tragedy, did not fail to acknowledge that 'for Heroic 
Plays . . . the first light we had of them, on the 

1 This is the very title of one of D'Avenant's plays, acted 1634, 
though not published until 1649. 



24 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

English theatre, was from the late Sir William D'Ave- 
nant.' * In presenting, in a semi-historical atmosphere 
and in a foreign setting, themes of love and valour 
that concern characters of high rank moving before a 
background of war, The Siege of Rhodes resembles 
the heroic play in essence, but it substitutes freedom 
in verse forms for the restraint of the ' heroic couplet/ 

D'Avenant himself, in his address 'To the Reader/ 
gives interesting comment upon both the heroic and 
poetic elements in his piece : ' The Story represented 
... is Heroical, and not withstanding the con- 
tinual hurry and busie agitations of a hot Siege, is 
(I hope) intelligibly convey'd to advance the Charac- 
ters of Vertue in the shapes of Valor and conjugal 
Love. . . . You may inquire, being a Reader, why in 
an heroick Argument my numbers are so often diver- 
sify'd and fall into short fractions ; considering that 
a continuation of the usual length of English verse 
would appear more Heroical in reading. But when 
you are an Auditor you will rlnde that in this, I 
rather deserve approbation then need excuse; for 
frequent alterations of measure . . . are necessary 
to Recitative Musick for variation of Ayres.' 

These latter phrases emphasize the fact that The 
Siege of Rhodes, however closely akin to heroic drama, 
was written not as a play but as an opera. With 
lines ranging from two to five accents and variously 
rhymed, it was intended partly for song and partly 
for recitative. In a passage that shows the novelty 
of recitative, and suggests its foreign origin, D'Ave- 
nant terms it 'unpractis'd here; though of great 
1 Essay of Heroic Plays, Ker, I, 149. 



ii THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 25 

reputation amongst other Nations.' 1 Again he 
suggests the limitations imposed by its use, in de- 
fending the poverty of plot 'because we could not 
convey it by more than seven Persons; being con- 
straint to prevent the length of Recitative Musick, 
as well as to conserve, without incumbrance, the 
narrowness of the place.' Each of the five 'Entries' 
into which the opera is divided ends with a chorus. 
The lame and impotent conclusion of the final one 
will sufficiently show the variety of verse form, while 
the first four lines quoted might, with some justice, 
be applied to D'Avenant's own poetic efforts : 

You began the Assault 
With a very long Hault ; 
And, as haulting ye came, 
So ye went off as lame ; 
And have left our Alphonso to scoff ye. 
To himself, as a Daintie, 
He keeps his Ianthe; 
Whilst we drink good Wine, and you drink but Coffy. 

In the use of scenery, The Siege of Rhodes de- 
liberately emphasized an element of theatrical art 
to which the public stage of the Elizabethans had 
been, in general, indifferent. Court masques had 
been lavishly set and costumed, and evidences are not 
wanting of occasional attempts to enrich the back- 
ground of regular drama. Yet it would be unfair 
to deny the essential novelty of the conscious and 
continuous movement to elaborate scenic art which is 
so largely indebted for its impulse to D'Avenant. 
Even his 'Ornament which encompass'd the Scene' 

1 Address 'To the Reader' in 1656 quarto of the play. 



26 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

has suggestions of historical setting in showing 'the 
proper cognisance of the Order of the Rhodian 
Knights/ and 'on an Antique Shield the Crescent of 
the Ottomans.' 1 The stage direction before the 'First 
Entry' runs thus: 'The Curtain being drawn up, a 
lightsome Sky appear'd, discov'ring a Maritime Coast, 
full of craggy Rocks, and high Cliffs, with several 
Verdures naturally growing upon such Scituations; 
and, a far off, the true Prospect of the City Rhodes, 
when it was in prosperous estate : with so much view 
of the Gardens and Hills about it, as the narrowness 
of the Room could allow the Scene. In that part of 
the Horizon, terminated by the Sea, was represented 
the Turkish Fleet making towards a Promontory some 
few miles distant from the Town.' The description 
before the ' Fourth Entry ' reads : ' The Scene is 
vary'd to the Prospect of Mount Philermus: Arti- 
ficers appearing at work about that Castle which was 
there, with wonderful expedition, erected by Solyman. 
His great Army is discover'd in the Plain below, 
drawn up in Battalia; as if it were prepar'd for a 
general Assault.' D'Avenant probably produced 
these effects on small painted scenes or screens, 
for his limitations of space and cost are plainly 
emphasized. His Address to the Reader says, 
'It has been often wisht that our Scenes (we having 
oblig'd our selves to the variety of Five changes) 
according to the Ancient Drammatick distinctions 
made for time) had not been confin'd to eleven foot 
in height, and about fifteen in depth, including the 
places of passage reserv'd for the Musick. This is 
1 These and the following quotations are from the 1656 quarto. 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 27 

so narrow an allowance for the Fleet of Solyman the 
Magnificent, his Army, the Island of Rhodes, 
and the varieties attending the Siege of the City; 
that I fear you will think, we invite you to such a 
contracted Trifle as that of the Caesars carv'd upon 
a Nut.' The Prologue to the Second Part, in the 
later enlargement of the piece, 1 exclaims that if to 
the poet were given half the money 

Which Faction gets from Fools to nourish Warr; 
Then his contracted Scenes should wider be, 
And move by greater Engines, till you see 
(Whilst you Securely sit) fierce Armies meet, 
And raging Seas disperse a fighting Fleet. 

In The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658) and 
The History of Sir Francis Drake (1659), D'Avenant 
continued to mask dramatic matter under the garb 
of music and scenery. Both pieces are described in 
the* first quartos as ' Exprest by Instrumentall and 
Vocall Musick, and by Art of Perspective in Scenes, 
&c,' and the Peruvian setting in each allowed one 
' Frontispiece ' or 'Ornament' to do double duty. 2 
Both operas, too, may have owed their immunity 
from Puritan persecution partly to the dominant 
English spirit of hostility to the Spaniards. Their 
real interest lies in the continuance of the musical 
elements of The Siege of Rhodes, in their kinship 
with heroic drama in the choice of semi-historical 
material and foreign setting, in the introduction of 

1 The Siege of Rhodes, enlarged into two parts, was acted at Lin- 
coln's Inn Fields in 1661, and printed in 1663. 

2 See 'The Discription of the Frontispiece' in the 1659 quarto of 
The History of S T Francis Drake. 



28 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dancing, and in the evidences of some attempts 
at appropriate scenery and costumes. The 'First 
Entry' in The Cruelty of the Spaniards is prefaced 
thus : ' The Audience are entertain'd by Instrumentall 
Musick and a Symphany (being a wild Ayre sutable to 
the Region) which having prepar'd the Scene, a 
Lantdchap of the West-Indies is discern'd; distin- 
guish from other Regions by the parcht and bare 
Tops of distant Hills, by Sands shining on the 
shores of Rivers, and the Natives, in feather'd 
Habits and Bonnets, carrying, in Indian Baskets, 
Ingots of Gold and Wedges of Silver. Some of the 
Natives being likewise discern'd in their natural 
sports of Hunting and Fishing. This prospect is 
made through a wood, differing from those of 
European Climats by representing of Coco-Trees, 
Pines and Palmitos; and on the boughs of other Trees 
are seen Munkies, Apes and Parrots; and at farther 
distance Vallies of Sugar-Canes. ,' The Chief Priest of 
Peru is described as ' cloth'd in a Garment of Feathers 
longer then any of those that are worne by other 
Natives, with a Bonnet whose ornament of Plumes 
does likewise give him a distinction from the rest, 
and carry es in his hand a guilded Verge. He like- 
wise, because the Peruvians were worshipers of 
the Sun, carryes the Figure of the Sun on his Bonnet 
and Breast.' The ' feather'd habits' of the Indians, 
the bows, glaives, spears, and quivers of the Peru- 
vians, the cloaks, ruffs, rapiers, and daggers of the 
Spaniards, and the red coats of the English are care- 
fully indicated in various stage directions. 

In thus deliberately attempting not merely a more 



n THE DRAMATIC INTERREGNUM, 1642-1660 29 

elaborate pictorial background, but a more faithful 
and consistent historical setting for drama, D'Avenant 
set in play forces whose ultimate results he could not 
have foreseen. Yet even the Restoration stage, in 
the brief years before his death, witnessed such 
development of scenery, costume, and stagecraft 
that the faint-hearted were fearful that the noble 
proportions of drama itself were being obscured under 
too sumptuous a mantle. D'Avenant's later work 
belongs to the opening years of Restoration drama. 
But his real significance in dramatic history lies in his 
reawakening of dramatic impulse in the closing years 
of the interregnum. He is at once both follower and 
leader — a link between Elizabethan and Restoration 
drama and a forerunner of modern English drama. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA AND 
OPERA 

The formal opening of the period of modern Eng- 
lish drama may be dated from the issuing by Charles 
II, on 21 August, 1660, of letters patent conferring 
upon Thomas Killigrew and Sir William D'Avenant 
the right to ' erect' two companies of players. The 
advent of Charles II to the throne meant the restora- 
tion of drama, as well as of monarchy. The grant 
of 21 August was of large significance. It restored to 
English drama, with the seal of royal authority, 
rights and privileges of which it has never subse- 
quently been deprived. Yet the act that thus con- 
ferred larger liberty upon the drama marks, in fact, 
the creation of a theatrical monopoly from whose 
shackles the London stage was not wholly freed for 
almost three centuries. For the moment, however, 
it was enough that the ban on English drama was 
formally lifted. 

The way, indeed, had already been opened for the 
resumption of theatrical activity. D'Avenant's pro- 
ductions at Rutland House had been followed by 
the performances of his operas, in 1658 and 1659, 
on the public stage at the Cockpit Theatre, in Drury 
Lane. In early February, 1660, General Monck 
entered London, and soon afterward a license for 

30 



chap, m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 31 

acting was given to John Rhodes, a London bookseller, 
said to have been previously connected with the 
Blackfriars Theatre as wardrobe-keeper. Before the 
issue of the patent of 21 August, three companies of 
actors had begun to be assembled — at the Cockpit, 
at the Red Bull, and at Salisbury Court, in White- 
friars. 

The royal grant to Killigrew and D'Avenant, 
accordingly, aroused some dissensions. Sir Henry 
Herbert, standing on his dignity as Master of the 
Revels, protested to the King against this ' unjust 
surprize' which disregarded his authority, and sought 
to discredit D'Avenant by describing him as one 'who 
obtained leave of Oliver and Richard Cromwell to 
vent his operas, at a time when your petitioner owned 
not their authority.' Even after the failure of his 
petition, Herbert strove to block D'Avenant's path 
by the assumption of rights of censorship. His 
warrant demanding that plays to be acted at the 
Cockpit be submitted to him that 'they may be 
reformed of prophanes and ribaldry' fomented the 
dispute, but eventually the struggle ended with the 
practical victory of the patentees. Meanwhile, under 
definite agreement between the two patentees, the 
actors were divided into two companies. D ' Avenant's 
company — known as the Duke of York's — settled, 
in 1661, at the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
removing finally to Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. 
Killigrew's company — known as the King's — was 
definitely established, in 1663, at the Theatre Royal, 
later known as Drury Lane. 

D'Avenant's dramatic work after the reopening 



32 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

of the theatres is far less significant than that which 
he inaugurated during the interregnum. Yet his 
revivals of several of his own pre-Restoration plays 
and his various adaptations from Elizabethan drama- 
tists are definite links between Restoration and earlier 
English drama. The Siege of Rhodes was now ex- 
panded into two parts, and two plays that had been 
produced by D'Avenant in the days of Charles I 
were successfully revived. These were Love and 
Honour, which may be regarded as one of the transi- 
tional plays between the heroic romances of Beau- 
mont and Fletcher and the ' heroic drama' of the 
Restoration, and The Unfortunate Lovers, a tragedy 
pronounced by Pepys, who witnessed it the day after 
its author's death, 'no extraordinary play.' * D'Ave- 
nant's new productions after the Restoration are chiefly 
adaptations from Elizabethan drama. Thus, The Law 
against Lovers (1662) blends with the darker tones of 
Measure for Measure the lively accents of Benedick 
and Beatrice ; The Rivals (1664) alters The Two Noble 
Kinsmen; Macbeth (1664?) and The Tempest (1667) 
recast Shakespeare. Dryden, who assisted in the 
alteration of The Tempest, ascribed to D'Avenant the 
doubtful credit for the introduction, as a counterpart 
to Miranda, of 'a man who has never seen a woman.' 
The Playhouse to be Let (circ. 1663) 2 is a sort of pot- 
pourri, including such diverse elements as two of 
D'Avenant's interregnum operas, a burlesque on 
the story of Antony and Cleopatra, and a rendering 
of Moliere in broken English. The Man's the Master 

1 Diary, 8 April, 1668. Wheatley edition, VII, 397. 

2 Printed in the 1673 folio of D'Avenant's Works. 



in BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 33 

(1668), a comedy with borrowings from Scarron, was 
revived as late as 1775. 

D'Avenant's importance in English dramatic his- 
tory is to be measured not by his own actual dramatic 
product but by the far-reaching and powerful forces 
which he set in motion. Crude and ineffective seem 
to the modern reader his dramatic efforts, yet to 
them must be accorded a prominence denied to many 
works of greater literary worth. The Siege of Rhodes 
is a distinct innovation whose historical significance 
is out of all proportion with its intrinsic merits. It 
remains one of the most notable landmarks in the 
course of English drama. In reviving theatrical 
performances, in regularly employing actresses and 
movable scenery, in heralding the 'heroic drama,' 
and in introducing opera, D'Avenant not merely set 
the fashion for early Restoration playwrights, but 
stirred impulses that have powerfully affected the 
whole course of modern English dramatic develop- 
ment. Yet his merits as a leader are enforced by his 
services as a follower of the Elizabethans. Through 
the dark years of the interregnum he kept alive some 
memory of a great national dramatic tradition. The 
fire of the Elizabethans had well-nigh burned itself 
out, but D'Avenant did not suffer its last sparks to 
become extinct. 

Like D'Avenant, Thomas Killigrew (161 2-1683) 
is a link between Elizabethan and Restoration 
drama. Some of his plays, among them several 
tragi-comedies in which the romantic vein of Fletcher 
is debased by extravagant conception and surcharged 
sentiment, appeared on the public stage before the 



34 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Civil War. During the interregnum, in the course 
of a protracted foreign sojourn, he continued to write 
plays. After the reopening of the theatres, he re- 
vived some of his pre-Restoration dramas. Pepys 
witnessed Claracilla on 4 July, 1661, and on 11 October, 
1664, recorded the suggestive comment of Luellin 
on the revival of Killigrew's early comedy, The 
Parson's Wedding : 'What a bawdy loose play this 
" Parson's Wedding" is, that is acted by nothing 
but women at the King's house.' The Restoration 
stage had become so quickly habituated to the ap- 
pearance of actresses that it had discovered a novel 
way to whet the appetites of playgoers. It is as 
a ' merry droll' — to borrow a phrase from Pepys — 
that Thomas Killigrew seems to have impressed the 
Merry Monarch and his followers. 'Tom Killigrew 
hath a fee out of the Wardrobe for cap and bells under 
the title of the King's Foole or Jester,' — so writes 
Pepys, 13 February, 1668, — 'and may with privilege 
revile or jeere anybody, the greatest person, without 
offence, by the privilege of his place.' His serious 
dramatic efforts seem, for the most part, laboured, and 
most of the pieces collected in the 1664 folio of his 
works may be dismissed as 'closet-dramas/ but in some 
of his comic passages, whetted with the zest of inde- 
cency, there are suggestions of the 'many merry 
stories' which established his reputation as a wit. 

In turning from an account of the dramatic work 
of D'Avenant and Killigrew to a broader survey of 
the Restoration drama under the leadership of the 
two patentees, it is well to emphasize one fact of 
vital importance. The roots of Restoration drama 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 35 

lie in Elizabethan soil. Yet the foreign graftings 
upon English stock have often attracted more at- 
tention than the native growth. Dryden and his 
followers based their theories largely on Gallic rules 
and conventions and their practice on Continental 
models, but it is wholly misleading to regard Restora- 
tion drama as an essentially foreign product. Comedy 
felt the influence of Jonson as well as of Moliere, and 
tragedy pointed backward to Beaumont and Fletcher 
as well as to Corneille and Racine. Dryden could 
preach classical doctrines of the drama and admire 
Shakespeare. Theory might seek to separate tragedy 
from comedy, but the tragi- comedies of Beaumont 
and Fletcher still held the stage. The 'heroic drama' 
borrowed consciously from foreign sources, yet in- 
herited no less surely an English birthright. Not 
seldom the hand is the hand of France, but the voice 
is the voice of England. The drama of Dryden's 
period is not the projection across the Channel of the 
straight line of Gallic convention ; it is the resultant 
of English and Continental forces. 

The reopening of the theatres brought the revival of 
numerous Elizabethan plays. John Downes, prompter 
at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre during practically 
the entire Restoration period, gives x a list of fifteen 
'Principal Old Stock Plays' acted during the earlier 
years of the Theatre Royal, later known as the Drury 
Lane. Two plays are by Dryden, three by Shake- 
speare, three by Jonson, seven by Beaumont and 
Fletcher. A supplementary list of old plays which 
' were Acted but now and then ; yet being well Per- 
1 Roscius Anglicanus, 1708, pp. 3-8. 



36 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

form'd, were very Satisfactory to the Town ' consists 
largely of works by Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont 
and Fletcher, and Shirley. Adaptations of still other 
Shakespearean plays gave them at least counterfeit 
presentment on the stage. Though his romantic com- 
edies were denied the favour shown to The Merry Wives 
of Windsor, Shakespeare's tragedies were reanimated 
by the genius of Betterton. Blurred and imperfect 
as was the Restoration vision, it was never blind to 
Elizabethan achievement. The interregnum had 
weakened, but not broken, the continuous chain of 
English drama. 

With the Restoration, the pent-up forces of Cavalier 
sentiment that had found but narrow outlets under 
the commonwealth burst the barriers. The anony- 
mous attacks upon Cromwell in such printed dramas 
of the interregnum as those previously described now 
gave way to open animosity. Early in 1660, John 
Tatham (fl. 1 63 2-1 664), whose early dramatic 
efforts before the closing of the theatres had been 
followed by productions of city pageants during the 
closing years of the interregnum, produced 'at the 
Private House in Dorset-Court,'' 1 The Rump, or the 
Mirrour of the Late Times. Some of the characters 
are thinly disguised by the transparent trick of in- 
verting their names — Bertlam for Lambert, Wood- 
fleet for Fleetwood — but others are introduced 
without semblance of pretence. The abusive satire 
does not respect sex, for Lambert's wife and Crom- 
well's widow are alike victims. The bitter Cavalier 
feeling of The Rump found expression in various 
1 See title-page of 1660 edition. 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 37 

dramatic pieces not produced on the stage. Of these 
it is enough to cite two early examples. Cromwell's 
Conspiracy (printed 1660) represents Cromwell in guilty 
intrigue with Mrs. Lambert, and in Hells Higher Court 
of Justice (printed 1661) the 'damned plagues' devised 
for his punishment seem adequate even for one said 
to deserve 'all, Nay more then ever hell yet knew.' 

The virulence of Cavalier feeling was tempered 
to milder satire upon the Puritans by Abraham 
Cowley (1618-1667) in Cutter of Coleman-Street 
(1661). This piece was a revision of The Guardian, 
which had been acted at Cambridge in 1641, printed 
in 1650, and, according to its author, 1 privately pre- 
sented several times during the interregnum. It is a 
commentary on the times that Cutter of Coleman- 
Street aroused resentment on account of its supposed 
strictures on the King's party. Royalist sentiment 
did not relish the frank portrayal of a drunken Cavalier 
in the person of Colonel Jolly, and Cowley deemed it 
necessary in an indignant preface to his first edition 
(1663) to answer charges of disloyalty because 
Cutter, 'a merry sharking fellow about the Town,' 
was represented as ' pretending to have been a Colonel 
in the Kings Army.' Yet Cutter mocks Puritan 
speech, garb, and the habit of referring everything to 
visions, and ends by marrying Puritan Tabitha and 
making her drunk and lewd. Apart from its political 
interest, Cowley's comedy has some effective strokes 
of characterization, and Lamb found it 'the link 
between the Comedy of Fletcher and of Congreve.' 2 

1 Preface to first edition of Cutter of Coleman-Street, 1663. 

2 Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, in Lamb's Works, Lucas 
edition, IV, 432, footnote. 



38 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Though the opening years of the Restoration 
theatres seem largely devoted to the revival of earlier 
dramas and to the novelty of political dramatic 
satire, there were early indications of more significant 
dramatic progress. In the work of John Wilson 
(1627 ?-i696), Recorder of Londonderry, Restoration 
comedy is at once quickened by Elizabethan impulse 
and shown to be capable of genuine comic achieve- 
ment. The comedies of Ben Jonson were speedily 
installed as favourites on the Restoration stage. 
Pepys saw The Silent Woman, 7 January, 1661, and 
Downes mentions it, together with Volpone and The 
Alchemist, as among the principal old stock plays at 
the Theatre Royal. John Wilson, though too vigorous 
to be dismissed merely as an imitator, fell naturally 
under Jonson's influence. In the Preface to The 
Cheats (written 1662) * he says: ' Comedy, either is, 
or should be, the true Picture of Vertue, or Vice; 
yet so drawn, as to shew a man how to follow the one, 
and avoid the other.' The Cheats is preeminently a 
1 humour comedy/ with deception, in its various 
forms, as the vice depicted. Bilboe and Titere Tu 
usurp the titles of Major and Captain, though they 
are but common bullies ; Runter is a pretended legal 
authority ; Scruple is a hypocrite — a Nonconformist 
who conforms for a living of £300, but goes back to 
his flock for £400 by ' natural affection' ; Mopus is a 
quack astrologer. The strength of the comedy lies 
rather in characters and in dialogue than in plot. 
In The Projectors (printed 1665) the influence of 
Jonson shows in characters like Sir Gudgeon Credu- 
1 See title-page of first edition, printed 1664. 



ni BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 39 

lous, the miser, Suckdry, the usurer, and Leanchops, 
the servant. The very names of the characters 
reveal the habit which Jonson popularized in 'humour 
comedy.' 

The generous treatment usually accorded to 
Wilson's dramatic work by modern critics has tended 
perhaps to magnify his real position with his contem- 
poraries. The Cheats was reprinted in each of the 
remaining decades of the century and had occasional 
performances as late as 1727, yet theatrical chroniclers 
of the day, like Downes, are apt to give it little or no 
mention. In a letter of 28 March, 1663, Abraham 
Hill says : ' The new play, called The Cheats, has 
been attempted on the stage ; but it is so scandalous, 
that it is forbidden.' 1 Genes t is so sceptical of the 
actual production of The Projectors that he includes 
it with Wilson's vigorous blank- verse tragedy, Andron- 
icus Comnenius (printed 1664), in his long list of 
'Plays not acted.' Belphegor, or The Marriage of 
the Devil, described in the edition of 1691 as 'lately 
acted at the Queen's Theatre in Dorset-Garden,' had 
a tardy posthumous hearing. Even the Biographia 
Dramatica dismisses Wilson briefly as 'the author of 
four plays.' No reader who has found relief from the 
dull monotony of so many lesser contemporary play- 
wrights in Wilson's best passages will seek to disparage 
his dramatic merits. Yet the weight of evidence 
seems to point toward less decisive assertion of his 
immediate dramatic prominence and of his influence 
upon his contemporaries. None the less he remains 
an early Restoration follower of 'the tribe of Ben,' and 
1 Familiar Letters of Abraham Hill, 1767, p. 103. 



40 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

a proof that the revived i humour comedy' could 
create as well as imitate. 

While frequent revivals, adaptations, and imita- 
tions of Elizabethan drama were thus exerting 
potent influence upon the early dramatic productions 
after the reopening of the theatres, the rapid develop- 
ment of scenic and other theatrical novelties tended 
more and more to differentiate the Restoration stage 
from the Elizabethan. Not in the written drama, but 
in the conditions of its presentation, are to be found 
the most striking early evidences of a new era in the 
development of the theatre. The influence of the 
theatrical innovations upon the drama itself was 
speedily recognized. Hardly had the Patent Theatres 
been well established when Richard Flecknoe, in A 
Short Discourse of the English Stage, 1 uttered a warning 
against the danger of allowing stage setting to dis- 
tract attention from the drama proper. 'Now, for 
the difference betwixt our Theaters and those of former 
times, they were but plain and simple, with no other 
Scenes, nor Decorations of the Stage, but onely old 
Tapestry, and the Stage strew'd with Rushes, (with 
their Habits accordingly) whereas ours now for cost and 
ornament are arriv'd to the heighth of Magnificence ; 
but that which makes our Stage the better, makes our 
Playes the worse perhaps, they striving now to 
make them more for sight, then hearing ; whence that 
solid joy of the interior is lost, and that benefit 
which men formerly receiv'd from Playes, from which 
they seldom or never went away, but far better and 
wiser then they came.' Furthermore, in the prac- 

1 Attached to Love's Kingdom. A Pastoral Trage-Comedy, 1664. 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 41 

tice that became well established during the next 
decade of transforming tragedy into opera, the change 
was effected in large part not merely by the use 
of music, but by the prominent introduction of 
scenery and stage devices. Of this, Downes gives 
abundant contemporary evidence. D'Avenant's 
alteration of Macbeth was 'drest in all it's Finery, 
as new Cloath's, new Scenes, Machines, as flyings 
for the Witches ' ; 1 The Tempest ' was made into 
an opera . . . having all New in it; as Scenes, 
Machines; particularly, one Scene Painted with 
Myriads of Ariel Spirits; and another flying away, 
with a Table Furnisht out with Fruits, Sweet meats, 
and all sorts of Viands'; 2 'In February 1673. The 
long expected Opera of Psyche, came forth in all her 
Ornaments ; new Scenes, new Machines, new Cloaths, 
new French Dances : This Opera was Splendi[d]ly 
set out, especially in Scenes; the Charge of which 
amounted to above 800 /.' 3 The very success of these 
devices in opera reacted upon the regular drama, so 
that tragedy shows a new and increasing reliance 
upon spectacular effects. 

Detailed account of various changes in scenery, 
costume, and stage machinery belongs rather to 
theatrical than to dramatic history. Yet it is im- 
portant to recognize that the acted drama is never 
independent of the conditions attending its production. 
Even the crude settings of D'Avenant's operas show 
that efforts to visualize the drama's scenes cannot fail 

1 Roscius Anglicanus, p. 33. 

2 Ibid., p. 34. 

3 Ibid., p. 35. 



42 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

to raise questions, however imperfectly they may be 
answered, as to appropriateness of scene and costume. 
The introduction of movable scenery is, furthermore, 
not without direct influence on the Restoration 
limitation of scenes as compared with the free practice 
of the Elizabethan stage. Nor is it merely the scene- 
shifter with whom the playwright must now reckon. 
When the dramatist is no longer left alone to paint 
the moonlit avenue at Belmont or the fairy wood 
outside Athens, poetry of words may clash with 
prose of paint. Even Puff discovered that a clock 
striking four in the morning ' saves a description of the 
rising sun and a great deal about gilding the eastern 
hemisphere.' There need be no attempt to seek in 
the increasing attention to scenic art a vain excuse 
for the dull fancies of many Restoration playwrights, 
yet it should not be forgotten that the very poverty 
of Elizabethan setting doubtless stimulated the wealth 
of Shakespearean descriptions. The habitual em- 
ployment of actresses on the Restoration stage may, 
likewise, be held to have influenced a drama which 
bent its energy largely to a licentious comedy of in- 
trigue, and which speedily found ways to whet 
interest by the presentation of plays given wholly by 
actresses and by capping tragedy with epilogues whose 
coarseness was accentuated in a woman's mouth. In 
so far, then, as these radical innovations of the 
Restoration stage changed the environment of the 
playwright, they directly influenced his dramatic 
product. 

In reviewing the early activities of the Restoration 
theatre, it has seemed advisable to defer until a separate 






m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 43 

chapter discussion of the dramatic work and influence 
of the most prominent Restoration dramatist. Yet, 
both to summarize the account already presented and 
to enlarge the scope of subsequent discussion, it is 
desirable to resolve, if possible, the component 
forces which have their resultant in Dryden's dra- 
matic work. The dominant influence on English 
drama during the interregnum and the opening years 
of the Restoration period was, as has been seen, 
English. The Elizabethan tradition was continued 
through D'Avenant's essentially heroic themes to 
the 'heroic drama' of Dryden and Orrery, and 
through ( droll humours,' culled chiefly from Eliza- 
bethan plays, to Jonsonian ' humour comedies' like 
those of Wilson. It was likewise enforced by the 
Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare and the 
stage revivals of Elizabethan plays. 

As the decade advanced, nevertheless, alien in- 
fluences asserted themselves with increasing power. 
In The Siege of Rhodes D'Avenant had already 
introduced English opera, using recitative music 
which he declared to be 'unpractis'd here ; though of 
great reputation amongst other Nations.' His words 
raise at once the question of foreign influence upon 
English opera. Too much stress should not be laid 
on D'Avenant's chance phrase. The facile assump- 
tion that early English opera is the product of French 
influences is dangerous. Under the protection of 
Mazarin, Italian opera had been carried into France 
as early as 1645. The real development of French 
opera, however, dates only from the decade of the 
seventies, a period subsequent to the operas of 



44 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

D'Avenant and other English writers. As operatic 
tendencies became accentuated in France, dramatists 
like Corneille, Moliere, and Quinault had more or 
less to do with its libretti. All three, in fact, contrib- 
uted to Psyche (1671), whose success turned Quinault 
to writing for Lulli, its composer, libretti which 
thoroughly established the popularity of French 
opera. The first French opera has been recently de- 
clared 1 to be the Pomone (1671) of Cambert and Pierre 
Perrin, and the popular collaborations of Lulli and 
Quinault begin only in the very year, 1673, when 
Shadwell turned The Tempest into an opera. Un- 
questionably the popularity of opera in France, and 
its occasional actual transfer to the English stage, 
stimulated operatic activity in England, especially 
in the decade which produced Matthew Locke's 
music to Psyche and the earliest of PurcelPs operas, 
Dido and A eneas (1 680) . Yet a score or so of years had 
already elapsed since the production of The Siege 
of Rhodes. Without attempting to disprove wholly 
the foreign influence upon early English opera which 
D'Avenant'sown words imply, it would seem that the 
case should not rest here. Two reasons naturally 
suggest themselves to account largely for D'Avenant's 
introduction of English opera — his previous practice 
in the masque and his desire to cloak, under a novel 
disguise, the real nature of his dramatic efforts. His 
early operas are not an alien Continental product. 
In a word, French influence was more potent in the later 
development of Restoration opera than at its outset. 
Of Continental influences upon Restoration drama 

*C. H. C. Wright, A History of French Literature, 191 2, p. 361. 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 45 

proper — as distinguished from its by-product, opera, 
— two deserve particular attention. These are the 
Spanish and the French. Broadly speaking, Eliza- 
bethan drama had been but slightly affected by 
Spanish influences. Tudor dramatists had occasion- 
ally introduced Spanish scenes or characters for the 
sake of variety, and had at times drawn from Spanish 
sources some suggestions for plot. Later play- 
wrights before the Restoration had borrowed, some- 
times directly, but more often indirectly, from Spanish 
originals. Usually, as in the familiar instance of 
Fletcher's obligations to the prose of Cervantes, 
material had been drawn rather from non-dramatic 
than from dramatic Spanish literature. Under 
Charles I, there are signs of an interest in Spanish 
drama which was continued after the reopening of 
the theatres. Killigrew's early comedy, The Parson' 's 
Wedding, successfully produced on the Restoration 
stage in 1664, drew from Calderon. Adaptations 
by George Digby, Earl of Bristol, of two comedies by 
Calderon were acted, according to Downes, 1 between 
1662 and 1665, and the publication of Digby 's Elvira, 
in 1667, is further proof of his interest in Calderon. 
Sir Samuel Tvike's Adventures of Five Hours (1663) — in 
contrast with which Pepys deemed Othello 'a mean 
thing ' — adapted a Spanish play ascribed to Antonio 
Coello. Other plays during the first decade of the 
Restoration which seem to show Spanish influence are 
Dryden's Rival-Ladies (1664) and his Evening's Love 
(1668), Orrery's Guzman (circ. i669), 2 and St. Serfe's 

1 Roscius Anglicanus, p. 26. 

2 Pepys mentions its anonymous production, 16 April, 1669. 
Diary, Wheatley edition, VIII, 296. 



46 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Tarugo's Wiles (1668). 1 Translations, such as those 
of Sir Richard Fanshawe (printed 1 670-1 671) from 
Antonio de Mendoza, give additional evidences of 
attention to Spanish drama, but deserve only inci- 
dental mention in a record primarily concerned with 
actual stage productions. 

The slender thread of Spanish weave which is thus 
apparent in the fibre of early Restoration drama is 
discernible from time to time in the texture of later 
English drama. Wycherley, Mrs. Behn, and Crowne, 
in the later seventeenth century, and Steele, Cibber, 
and Mrs. Centlivre in the early eighteenth century 
may serve as sufficient examples of the continuance of 
Spanish influence, however faint at times, upon 
English dramatists. In general, however, Spanish 
drama, or even Spanish literature, made but minor 
contribution to English drama of the Restoration. 
Apart from its occasional suggestions for plot, 
Spanish drama may have somewhat stimulated early 
Restoration tendency toward the comedy of intrigue. 
In a familiar passage, Scott declared 2 that 'the 
Spanish comedy, with its bustle, machinery, disguise, 
and complicated intrigue, was much more agreeable' 
to the taste of Restoration audiences than ' regular 
comedy . . . depending upon delicate turns of expres- 
sion, and nicer delineations of character.' Yet this 
must not be mistaken for proof of the dominance of 
Spanish influence over Restoration comedy. From 
Etherege onward, the 'artificial' Restoration comedy 

1 St. Serfe borrowed from Moreto's No puede ser, a source from 
which Crowne drew to better advantage in his Sir Courtly Nice (1685). 

2 Life of John Dryden, Scott-Saintsbury edition of Dryden, I, 62. 



in BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 47 

of manners is largely characterized by a grace and flu- 
ency of prose dialogue which, in Congreve, is carried 
even to indifference toward dramatic action. The 
bustle and machinery of Spanish comedy actually af- 
fected but slightly the course of English dramatic de- 
velopment. The indebtedness of Restoration play- 
wrights to Spanish sources is neither considerable in 
extent nor potent. 

Far more significant in its bearings upon Restora- 
tion drama was French influence. French drama, 
French dramatic theory, and French romance affected 
V English writers of the period so notably that it was 
once almost habitual to regard Restoration drama 
as an essentially Gallicized product. In its simplest 
form, this theory held that Charles II and his followers 
returned from Cavalier exile on the Continent dom- 
inated by French dramatic standards which forth- 
with gave to English drama its primary stimulus 
and determined its content, form, and general charac- 
ter. The ease with which proofs may be amassed 
of direct Gallic influence upon Restoration plays 
doubtless contributed to the wide acceptance of this 
facile theory. Its fault lies not in its underlying 
elements of partial truth, but in its gross exaggeration. 
It would be an equal error to belittle evidences of 
French influence upon English drama, some of which 
are too obvious to escape even a superficial reader. 
Translations, adaptations, and imitations of French 
drama are numerous and important. Moliere was 
despoiled by English writers of comedy; Corneille, 
and later Racine, left indubitable marks upon English 
tragedy. Potent, especially, was the force of French 



48 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dramatic theory. Yet not even the multiple proofs of 
Gallic graftings on the stock of Restoration drama 
can obscure the contention that its roots lie in English 
soil. The stage which D'Avenant helped to reestab- 
lish owed neither its origin nor its initial progress 
to Gallic masters. Throughout the interregnum 
the Elizabethan dramatic tradition persisted. With 
the reopening of the theatres, the managers of the 
Patent Houses turned to Shakespeare, Jonson, 
Beaumont and Fletcher, and other early English 
dramatists, and in them Restoration playwrights 
found models to imitate and materials to refashion. 
Even the novelty of English opera seems chiefly 
attributable to native influences. Subsequent dis- 
cussion of the later development of Restoration 
drama will frankly recognize its large indebtedness 
to Gallic models, yet even when French authority 
seems most dominant it never fully imposed its 
yoke upon the English theatre. The rigid con- 
ventions of the classical Continental dramas were, 
again and again, abated on the freer English stage. 
In a word, Restoration drama is not to be dismissed 
as an essentially foreign product. It is the resultant 
of English and Continental forces. 

With this general conclusion always in mind, it is 
none the less essential to indicate some of the im- 
portant evidences of French influence upon early 
Restoration dramatists. The tendency to identify 
French drama and dramatic theory with the so-called 
classical school makes it advisable to recall the fact 
that French drama of the first half of the seventeenth 
century by no means confined itself to the more 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 49 

regular forms of tragedy and comedy. Pastoral 
and tragi-comedy were popular. The tragi-comedies 
of the prolific Hardy and of his successor, Rotrou, 
clearly transgress the strict bounds of Senecan tragedy. 
The influence of French drama upon English, before 
the closing of the theatres, was not circumscribed 
by classical prejudices. In England the doctrines of 
classical drama, though at times supported, as in the 
theory of Sir Philip Sidney and in the partial prac- 
tice of Ben Jonson, had been too rigid for the free 
fancy of most Elizabethans. As the wave of creative 
energy subsided, however, playwrights who lacked 
the genius that is a law unto itself were more suscep- 
tible to dramatic guidance. The advent of new and 
commanding forces in French drama, during the 
English dramatic interregnum, was naturally of import 
to the rising dramatists of a reawakening English 
stage. 

To Pierre Corneille (1 606-1 684) have been largely 
ascribed the classical tendencies early apparent in 
English drama of the Restoration. Without disput- 
ing the general conclusions of many critics, it may be 
well to point the danger of regarding him as an uncom- 
promising classicist. The identification of Corneille 
with classical drama rests on his later dramatic work 
and theory, but tends to disregard both his earlier 
plays and the romantic tendencies often apparent 
even in his so-called classical tragedies. Corneille 
dramatized before he theorized. Though habitually 
classed as a writer of tragedy, his 'peches de jeunesse' 
— as he termed his early comedies — and Le Menteur 
broaden the scope of his dramatic work. The roman- 



50 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

tic atmosphere of the time colours the splendid rhetoric 
of Le Cid (1636), and the tribute of the Academy to 
1 la naivete et la vehemence de ses passions ' suggests 
that its triumph was not that of classical restraint 
in tragedy. Horace (1640), indeed, is a more strictly 
classical tragedy, but the melodramatic note in 
Rodogune, the operatic element in Andromede, and 
the very name comedie heroique which its author 
gave to Don Sanche D'Aragon are sufficient proof 
that Corneille is not to be dismissed merely as a writer 
of classical tragedy. His important pronouncements 
of classical dramatic theory, furthermore, belong to 
his later days. His own practice he found difficult 
to harmonize with his theory. Yet all this is not to 
deny his unquestioned influence upon Restoration 
dramatists in the direction of classical drama. 
The various Discours and Examens accompanying the 
printed texts of his plays formulated a critical theory 
of classical drama which offered direct suggestion to 
Restoration playwrights. The doctrine of the dra- 
matic unities was to find almost immediately a power- 
ful English advocate in Dryden. 

To the influence of Corneille upon English tragedy 
and dramatic theory must be added that of Moliere 
upon English comedy. Not until the closing decade 
of the ;j English dramatic interregnum did Moliere 
(16 2 2-1 6 73) attain eminence as a writer of comedy. 
His significant dramatic work covers the score of 
years from the production of UEtourdi (1653?) to 
his death. With Les Precieuses Ridicules, produced 
late in 1659, his success was firmly established. 
In the opening years of the Restoration period, his 



m BEGINNINGS OF RESTORATION DRAMA 51 

fame was furthered by UEcole des Maris (1661) and 
UEcole des Femmes (1662) . The advent of the master 
of French comedy brought to English playwrights of 
the new era a model to admire and imitate. Some of 
them had already come in contact with his early 
work during the closing years of the interregnum. 
With the reopening of the theatres and the growth of 
Moliere's reputation, English writers turned increas- 
ing attention to French comedy. Translations and \ 
adaptations of Moliere multiplied, and suggestions 
were freely pilfered for plot, incident, and character. 1 
Yet Restoration borrowers reproduced the outward 
semblance, not the real spirit, of the French master. 
In their hands Gallic gaiety was coarsened into 
gross brutality, satire became cynically harsh, and 
human comedy lost its humanity. In comedy, 
as in tragedy, the spirit of French drama evaded the 
grasp of English copyists. It would be as unfair to 
Moliere as it would be untrue to the facts of English 
dramatic history to regard Restoration comedy as an 
essentially Gallicized product. 

In the developments of Restoration drama about 
to be traced, Continental influences will be found 
constant and powerful. Yet the English influences 
that dominated the interregnum and the opening 
years of the new era remain, throughout the Restora- 
tion period, the underlying factor. Gallic theory and 
English practice clashed ceaselessly for years, but in 
the end the predominant forces were English. Even 
Dryden, the most notable advocate of classical 

1 The extent of English borrowings from French drama is indicated 
in Ward's suggestive footnote, III, 315-316. 



52 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, hi 

theories, bore repeated testimony to the triumphs of 
Elizabethan genius, turned eventually against his 
1 long-loved mistress Rhyme,' and led the return to 
English blank verse and an at least partial return to 
Elizabethan themes and methods. It is well to 
enter the study of the drama of Dryden and his period 
with the recollection that the roots of Restoration 
drama He in Elizabethan soil. 



CHAPTER IV 

DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 

The central figure in the history of Restoration 
drama is John Dryden (i 631-1700). Yet Dryden 
was more at home in verse satire or prose criticism 
than in comedy or tragedy. Much of his dramatic 
work seems written against the grain, in response not 
to his own impulse, but to the popular demand. He 
early voiced and long followed the doctrine of the 
practical playwright : 

He's bound to please, not to write well ; and knows, 
There is a mode in plays as well as clothes. 1 

In comedy he had neither the wit nor the ease of 
Congreve. Even in heroic tragedy, of which he is the 
chief exemplar, his fancy seems to have been caught 
rather by rhyme than by dramatic action. Never- 
theless, practice gave him facility in playwriting, 
and the touch of poetry raised his best dramas far 
above the level of ephemeral stage successes. From 
flabby perversions of Shakespeare he rose, in All for 
Love, to real power in handling the theme of Antony 
and Cleopatra. Though not at heart a dramatist, 
he led both in critical discussion of dramatic theory 
and in practice of dramatic composition. With 
him, essentially, rose and fell English rhymed heroic 
drama. 

1 Prologue to The Rival-Ladies (1664). 
53 



54 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

His advent as a playwright promised little. His 
first comedy, The Wild Gallant (1663), was to 
Pepys 'so poor a thing as I never saw in my life 
almost,' l and to the author himself a ' motley garni- 
ture of fool and farce.' 2 The Rival-Ladies (1664), 
based on a Spanish plot, is a tragi-comedy with 
elements of heroic drama. Especially noteworthy 
is the introduction of some scenes in rhyme. Dryden, 
whose carelessness is shown by his citation of Queen 
[sic] Gorboduc, a blank-verse tragedy, as a precedent 
for English rhymed drama, and by his assignment of 
the invention of blank verse to Shakespeare, in dedi- 
cating his play to the Earl of Orrery credits him with 
an earlier adoption of the 'new way ... of writing 
scenes in verse.' Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery 
(1621-1679), oi whose work The History of Henry 
the Fifth (1664) and Mustapha, the Son of Solyman the 
Magnificent (1665), may serve as sufficient examples, 
has been frequently credited with the introduction of 
rhymed heroic drama, but it is well not to lay too 
much stress on Dryden's generous words. It is true 
that 'the new way of writing scenes in verse' differs 
widely from the Elizabethan use of the rhymed couplet 
to mark the close of scenes or to emphasize certain 
passages, and from Shakespeare's frequent employment 
of rhyme for lyrical effect in his earlier plays. Yet 
even the more rigid 'heroic couplet' of Restoration 
drama is perhaps anticipated in such a play as The 
Virgin Widow (printed 1649), by Francis Quarles. 
Although this appeared during the interregnum, 

1 Diary, 23 Feb., 1663. Wheatley edition, III, 51. 

2 Second Epilogue, written for the revival of the play in 1669. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 55 

the first quarto speaks of it as ' having been sometimes 
at Chelsie privately Acted/ and the fact that one of 
its most conspicuous rhymed passages receives 
extended parody in The Rehearsal (1671) 1 seems to 
strengthen belief that the play should not be dis- 
missed as a ' closet-drama.' Dryden himself ascribes 
to D'Avenant the introduction of rhymed couplets on 
the stage. It may, furthermore, be questioned 
whether Orrery's plays preceded Dryden's in actual 
employment of the rhymed couplet on the Restoration 
stage. 2 Orrery certainly exhibits an early tendency 
toward the use of the 'heroic couplet' in serious drama, 
but Dryden's adoption and development of rhyme 
was the dominant factor in its notable, though 
brief, triumph. 

Although rhyme makes an early appearance in 
less serious plays like The Rival-Ladies and Etherege's 
Comical Revenge (1664), its real supremacy was to 
come in tragedy. With The Indian Queen (1664), 
in which Sir Robert Howard (16 26-1698) had 
some assistance from Dryden, and especially with 
Dryden's sequel, The Indian Emperor, or The Con- 
quest of Mexico by the Spaniards (1665), rhymed 
heroic tragedy comes into full being. The Indian , 
Emperor gave an adequate test of the heroic couplet 
in serious drama and established Dryden's position 
as a dramatist. In the conflicts of love and honour 

1 Quarles, The Virgin Widow, III, 1, is burlesqued in The Rehearsal, 
III, 2. See Arber's reprint of The Rehearsal, pp. 86-88. 

2 Pepys, who saw Orrery's Henry the Fifth, 13 Aug., 1664, speaks 
of it as 'the new play.' He mentions The Indian Queen, 27 Jan., 
1664, and he saw The Rival-Ladies, 4 Aug., 1664. 



56 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

between characters of high rank, including personages 
like Montezuma and Cortez, who move, before a 
foreign and semi-historical background, through 
scenes of stirring incident toward the triumphant 
union of martial hero and angelic heroine and the 
death of those unable to survive the tragic stress, 
Dryden assembled many elements of earlier English 
plays, and wedded heroic action to the heroic coup- 
let by the new formula of ' heroic drama.' 

The new species of drama was now fairly established, 
but Dryden did not wholly abandon comedy. Yet 
despite the light under-plot of Celadon's love for 
Florimel which Nell Gwynn helped to popularize, 
Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen (1667) shows in its 
main plot influences of heroic drama in both form and 
substance. The love conflict involved in the Queen 
of Sicily's affection for her sister's lover, and solved 
by the Queen's renunciation, is essentially heroic in 
theme and employs the heroic couplet as well as 
blank verse. Probably in the same year, 1667, 
Dryden produced versions both of Continental and 
of Elizabethan plays. Sir Martin Mar- All, or The 
Feigned Innocence is a prose adaptation of Moliere's 
UEtourdi, with some borrowings from Quinault 
which accentuate Dryden's indebtedness to French 
sources. In The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island, 1 
the tempest of Restoration perversion of Shakespeare 
breaks with violence, and the enchantment fades 
into the light of common day. An Evening's Love, or 
The Mock Astrologer (1668) coarsens materials drawn 

1 Probably most of the work belongs to D'Avenant, whom Dryden 
aided. This play must be distinguished from Shadwell's opera, 1673. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 57 

from the younger Corneille and from Moliere's 
Le Depit Amoureux. Its most engaging characters, 
Wildblood and Jacintha, resemble, if they do not 
match, Celadon and Florimel. Perhaps Dryden's 
most agreeable contributions to comedy are, in fact, 
these pairs of light-hearted lovers, who, without the 
deeper traits of Benedick and Beatrice, have yet 
real vivacity and superficial attraction. The range 
and variety of these different plays show not merely 
Dryden's versatility as a dramatist but the contending 
forces that bear on Restoration drama. 

The conflict between Continental example and 
English practice may be seen especially in the English 
treatment of heroic drama. Emphasis has already 
been laid upon the continuous development from early 
English sources of many important elements in heroic 
drama. Into this current now poured French streams. 
The heroic romances of such authors as La Calprenede 
and Madeleine de Scudery influenced English drama 
not merely indirectly, through the French drama 
which they stimulated, but in many cases directly. 1 
Yet English heroic plays usually reproduced but 
imperfectly the French romances or plays which were 
their models. Whatever their professed allegiance 
to Corneille's theories as to the dramatic unities, the 
Restoration dramatists by no means caught either the 
spirit or the form of Corneille's tragedies. Observa- 
tion of French models resulted, in the English heroic 
play, in simplification of character, scene, and action 
rather than in absolute observance of the unities of 

1 Ward, III, 309, footnote 2, gives a suggestive list of instances in 
point. 



58 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

time, place, and action. 1 The grand manner of 
French heroic romance was distorted rather than 
copied ; its themes handled grossly. Honour was put 
to the proof of sensational and impossible adventure, 
and love exploded in a torrent of rhetoric. Hero an3 
heroine must tear a passion to tatters and out-Herod 
Herod. It is a far cry from The Indian Emperor to 
Le Cid. Classical French doctrine sought to separate 
tragedy from comedy, but its effect on English drama 
was somewhat inconclusive. There resulted, indeed, 
stricter discrimination between comedy and tragedy 
in Restoration than in Elizabethan drama. Yet 
the tragi-comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher main- 
tained their stage popularity, and no doubt influenced 
the happy endings of numerous heroic plays. The 
French distaste for bloodshed and violence on the 
stage could not be transmitted undiminished to an 
English stage that had tasted the tragedy of blood. 
In writing The Indian Emperor as a sequel to The 
Indian Queen, Dryden was forced to confess a cer- 
tain paucity of materials, ' there remaining but two 
of the considerable characters alive.' 2 The heroic 
drama almost required the eventual triumph of the 
superhuman hero, but victims were needed to exhibit 
his prowess. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
English heroic drama remains frequently closer to 
the type of Elizabethan tragi-comedy than to classical 
tragedy. At almost every turn, there is discernible a 
conflict between foreign classical restraint and native 

1 The use of increasingly elaborate scenery was also a factor in the 
simplification in number of scenes. 

2 Scott-Saintsbury edition of Dryden, II, 321. 



IV DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 59 

romantic freedom. In this conflict, Gallic theory is 
not translated literally into English practice. 

In one particular, this clash of forces seems to have 
resulted, at least temporarily, in a decisive French 
victory, in the introduction of rhyme in serious 
English drama. That French example is wholly 
responsible for this innovation in the English heroic 
play seems, however, hardly tenable. The precision 
and regularity of the rhymed couplet might, con- 
ceivably, have recommended it to Restoration taste, 
even without the authority of the Alexandrines of 
French drama. The couplet which commended itself 
to Jonson and which had already been approved in 
non-dramatic verse had received some trial in an inter- 
regnum play by Quarles. French seed fell upon good 
soil, and the estimate of its yield should not ignore 
the favourable season in which it ripened. There 
need be little hesitation, however, in admitting the 
definite and potent French influence toward rhymed 
drama. Under the Merry Monarch, when 'all, by 
the king's example, lived and loved,' * there was royal 
precedent for acceptance of Continental dramatic 
tendencies. In speaking of his rhymed tragedy, 
The Black Prince, as 'wrote in a new way,' Orrery says 
that he wrote 'in the French Manner, because I 
heard the King declare himself more in favour of 
their Way of Writing than ours.' 2 

The general adoption of rhyme in serious English 
drama was not effected without a struggle. The 

1 'All, by the King's Example, live and love/ The Progress of Beauty, 
George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, Genuine Works, 1732, I, 78. 

2 Quoted by Ward, III, 340. 



60 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

various stages of the notable controversy on the sub- 
ject between Dryden and Howard are tersely sum- 
marized in the last paragraph of Dry den's Defence of 
an Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) : 'In my epistle 
dedicatory, before my Rival Ladies, I had said 
somewhat in behalf of verse, which he was pleased 
to answer in his preface to his plays [Foure New Plays, 
1665] : that occasioned my reply in my Essay [An 
Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1668] ; and that reply begot 
this rejoinder of his, in his preface to the Duke of 
Lerma [1668].' The essence of Howard's argument 
is that rhyme is unnatural in drama. Dryden's 
position is that, in serious plays, rhyme is 'as natural 
and more effectual than blank verse,' 1 for it 'cir- 
cumscribes the fancy' 2 and adds sweetness, that the 
faults of rhymed tragedy are due to 'ill rhyming,' and 
that Jonson, Fletcher, and Shakespeare have so 
thoroughly exhausted dramatic writing that 'this 
way of writing in verse they have only left free to us.' 3 
To such arguments Dryden's own abandonment of 
rhyme within the next decade gives sufficient answer, 
but for the moment, putting theory into practice, 
he set the fashion of rhyme. 

In Tyrannic Love, or The Royal Martyr (1669) 
and Almanzor and Almahide, or The Conquest of 
Granada by the Spaniards (1669-1670), the heroic 
drama has characteristic illustration. In Tyrannic 

1 Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Ker, I, 94. It should be noted that the 
discussion of rhyme forms but part of this Essay, which deals at length 
with the unities and with the relative merits of ancient and modern 
dramatists. 

2 Dedication to The Rival-Ladies. 

3 Ker, I, 99. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 6l 

Love, Maximin, Tyrant of Rome, chooses Porphyrius 
as his heir and as husband for his daughter, Valeria. 
Porphyrius, in love with the Empress herself, refuses 
the match and is sentenced to death. Catherine, 
Princess of Alexandria, a Christian captive, who con- 
verts the heathen philosopher Apollonius and others 
with remarkable celerity, captures Maximin's heart. A 
conjurer is consulted to win Catherine for the Tyrant, 
but her guardian angel wards off the evil spirits. 
Maximin then orders Catherine and her mother to 
be killed on account of their religion, and the Empress 
and her lover are sentenced to death. Valeria stabs 
herself in despair, her lover Placidius stabs Maximin, 
and he in turn stabs Placidius — a ' solution by mas- 
sacre' which eventually leaves Porphyrius and the 
Empress free to mount the bloody throne. Though it is 
easy to exaggerate the defects of the heroic drama, 
some of Maximin's speeches are almost proverbial 
for rant, and the solution certainly takes the step from 
the sublime to the ridiculous. After Placidius and 
Maximin have exchanged stabs, 'Placidius falls, and 
the Emperor staggers after him, and sits down upon 
him.' Disdaining the help of guards, Maximin 
strives to rise but has to resume his uneasy seat of 
vantage upon Placidius, who heroically rounds out a 
defiant couplet. Both are finally rhymed to death. 

Placidius. Oh I am gone. [Dies.] Maximin. And after 

thee I go, 
Revenging still, and following ev'n to the other world my blow ; 

[Stabs him again.] 
And shoving back this earth on which I sit, 
I'll mount, and scatter all the gods I hit. [Dies.] 



62 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Valerius, Valeria, Maximin, and Placidius meet 
death on the stage, contrary to the classical tendency. 
On the other hand the Empress and her lover have a 
happy issue out of their afflictions. The classical 
influence is evident in the attitude toward the three 
unities. The unity of place is well preserved, except 
in the shift of scene in the fourth act, and the action 
is simplified to a few leading characters. But in 
order to conform to the unity of time, the action 
has to proceed sometimes with remarkable celerity. 
The Tyrant's son does battle, is killed, and is greeted 
with his dead march, within some sixty lines. In the 
second act, Apollonius, the heathen philosopher, 
despite his own excellent argument, is converted 
with theatrical speed. 'Time trots hard' with heroic 
drama. 

The Conquest of Granada is perhaps the typical 
heroic drama. It is based largely on Madeleine de 
Scudery's Almahide, and partly on her Le ' Grand 
Cyrus and Ibrahim. Like Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 
it is in two parts, and centers in the character of 
the hero. The plot is a maze through which Almanzor 
advances with assured tread. 1 In the Dedication, 
Dryden says, 'I have formed a hero, I confess, not 
absolutely perfect, but of an excessive and over-boiling 
courage; but Homer and Tasso are my precedents.' 
For rant, Almanzor 'out-Herods Herod,' and for 
prowess one shudders to contemplate his meeting with 
Achilles or Rinaldo, his confessed originals. 2 Once 
only, when he is overcome in the last act of Part I, 

1 An excellent summary of it is in Saintsbury's Dryden, pp. 46-50. 

2 Essay of Heroic Plays, Ker, I, 155. 



IV DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 63 

the hero seems human. Doctor Johnson says 1 that 
the two parts of the play 'are written with a seeming 
determination to glut the publick with dramatick 
wonders ; to exhibit in its highest elevation a theatrical 
meteor of incredible love and impossible valour, 
and to leave no room for a wilder flight to the extrava- 
gance of posterity.' Nevertheless, despite bombast 
and grotesqueness, a certain masterful vigour sweeps 
the action onward. Spirited couplets help to sus- 
tain the dialogue, and the vitality of the central 
character is abundant enough to impel him trium- 
phantly through double the ordinary number of acts 
of heroic drama. Yet when the curtain falls on the 
last of many scenes of battle, murder, and sudden 
death, one recalls with amazement Dryden's definition 
of a play as 'a just and lively image of human nature.' 2 
The zeal of the heroic play seems for a time to have 
eaten Dry den up. In the Epilogue to The Conquest 
of Granada he speaks with the extravagance of his 
own Almanzor. Dryden had once been content to 
claim 'a mingled chime Of Jonson's humour, with 
Corneille's rhyme,' 3 but now he extols his own 
age far above that when 

Jonson did mechanic humour show, 
When men were dull and conversation low. 

The Elizabethans, who 'rose, but at their height could 
seldom stay,' could not meet the test of Restoration 
refinement, for 

1 Life of Dryden. In Lives of the English Poets, Hill edition, 

1905, 1, 348-349- 

2 Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Ker, I, 36. 

3 Prologue to Secret Love (printed 1668). 



64 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Wit's now arrived to a more high degree ; 
Our native language more refined and free. 

But while Dryden was viewing with complacency his 
good fortune in writing ' to please an age more gallant 
than the last/ and asserting with easy assurance the 
merits of rhymed heroic drama, profane hands had 
been quietly laying a mine of satire which was pres- 
ently to explode under his feet. The Rehearsal, said 
to have been begun in 1663, was produced 7 December, 
167 1. Its chief author, George Villiers (1628- 
1687), the graceless Duke of Buckingham, had been 
assisted by Martin Clifford, Thomas Sprat, and, it is 
sometimes said, by ' Hudibras ' Butler. In the years of 
its conception it had accumulated a varied body of 
ridicule upon contemporary drama and dramatists. 
The main attack, doubtless first directed against 
D'Avenant, 1 was diverted after his death, in 1668, 
to Sir Robert Howard, and finally to Dryden, the new 
poet laureate. Though by no means the sole target, 
Dryden received most of the shafts of burlesque. 
Drawcansir, hero of the mock-heroic tragedy which 
is rehearsed, is Almanzor, and Bayes, the author, is 
Dryden himself. Many of Dryden's lines are closely 
parodied : 

Almanzor : Spite of myself I'll stay, fight, love, despair ; 
And I can do all this, because I dare. 
Drawcansir : I drink, I huff, I strut, look big and stare ; 
And all this I can do, because I dare. 

1 Bayes, whose broken nose adorned with a 'wet piece of brown 
papyr' (II, 5) is a hit at D'Avenant's personal disfigurement, retains 
evidences of the original intention. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 65 

And again : 

Almanzor : He, who dares love, and for that love must die, 
And, knowing this, dares yet love on, am I. 
Drawcansir : He that dares drink, and for that drink dares 
die, 
And, knowing this, dares yet drink on, am I. 1 

Almahide, Dryden's heroine, has her 'So, two kind 
turtles, when a storm is nigh' transprosed into 'So 
Boar and Sow, when any storm is nigh.' 

Dryden, though the most conspicuous, is by no 
means the only dramatist held up to ridicule. Fan- 
shawe, Quarles, and Stapylton are among the lesser 
dramatists who are not overlooked in specific passages 
of parody. Indeed, the burlesque overflows with so 
many 'local hits' and so many close parodies of 
forgotten plays that much of the fun is now lost. 
Burlesque, in its very nature, is ephemeral, and can 
hardly survive the subject it ridicules. The vitality 
of parts of The Rehearsal is due to the general satire 
of stage absurdities common to all time. Uncalled 
for exits and entrances, omissions in the plot of 
vital points, rant and fustian, are subjects for lasting 
satire. Parts of The Rehearsal move even the modern 
reader's mirth — Volscius in love, with one boot 
on and the other off, torn between Honour urging him 
to 'pluck both boots on' and Love urging him to 'put 
on none' — Pallas, with French wine in her lance, 
a pie in her helmet, and a buckler of cheese — Draw- 
cansir who 'kills 'em all on both sides,' and boasts : 

Others may boast a single man to kill ; 
But I, the bloud of thousands, daily spill. 

1 See Arber's reprint of The Rehearsal, pp. 102-103. 



66 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Sheridan's Critic has displaced on the stage the 
earlier burlesque which served as its rough model, 
but The Rehearsal yet retains much of its zest for the 
reader familiar with the extravagant absurdities of 
heroic drama. 

The actual effect of The Rehearsal in its own day 
has often been greatly misrepresented. Short-lived 
the heroic drama doubtless was, but its death-knell 
had not yet been sounded. Probably the authors of 
The Rehearsal cared little whether heroic plays were 
laughed off the stage, so long as their piece was laughed 
at on the stage. They had no insistent artistic 
quarrel with the reigning favourite, and none of Jeremy 
Collier's saeva indignatio in exposing the shortcomings 
of the drama. Amid the laughter evoked by The 
Rehearsal, Dryden published An Essay of Heroic 
Plays (1672), in the opening sentence dogmatically 
reasserting his attitude toward rhymed plays : 
' Whether Heroic Verse ought to be admitted into 
serious plays, is not now to be disputed : 'tis already 
in possession of the stage; and I dare confidently 
affirm that very few tragedies, in this age, shall 
be received without it.' With zeal worthy of a better 
cause, he still stood to his guns, maintaining that 
'an heroic play ought to be an imitation, in little, 
of an heroic poem ; and, consequently, that Love and 
Valour ought to be the subject of it' ; that 'an heroic 
poet is not tied to a bare representation of what is 
true, or exceeding probable ' ; that the introduction 
of magic machinery is justifiable ; and that the l fre- 
quent use of drums and trumpets, and my represen- 
tations of battles' had Shakespearean precedent, and 
were essential to heroic drama. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 67 

Dryden's somewhat desultory dramatic efforts 
during the next few years do not justify in practice 
his positiveness in theory. The Prologue to Amboyna, 
or The Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants 
(1673) justly warns the audience to 'hope not either 
language, plot, or art/ and the sorry tragedy, deprived 
even of the false gallop of verse, shuffles through 
bad prose and worse blank verse to its wretched end. 
There followed an operatic version of Paradise Lost, 
entitled The State of Innocence and Fall of Man (printed 
1674) , which was not intended for the stage. Criticism 
has fastened more readily upon the ludicrous than 
upon the sometimes fine passages. Yet Eve's pride 
that goeth before the fall shows a mastery of the 
personal pronouns hardly consonant with the State 
of Innocence : 

Sure, I am somewhat which they wish to be, 
And cannot ; I myself am proud of me. (II, 2) 

Meantime, Dryden had not abandoned comedy, 
though The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery (1672) 
tends to confirm his own admitted weakness in such 
work. Marriage-d-la-Mode (1672?), a comedy with a 
serious under-plot, is, however, of a different stamp, 
and has been pronounced by Saintsbury 1 'Dryden's 
only original excursion into the realms of the higher 
comedy.' Melantha, a fashionable lady, 'runs mad 
in new French words, ' and perhaps foreshadows in 
spirit Congreve's Millamant, to whom she has some- 
times been compared. 

In 1675, appeared the last of Dryden's rhymed 

1 Dryden, p. 54. 



68 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

heroic plays, Aureng-Zebe. Already his spirit is restive 
under the fetters of rhyme. In the Dedication he 
desires that, if he 'must be condemned to rhyme/ 
he may find 'some ease in his change of punishment,' 
and in the Prologue he confesses that he 'grows 
weary of his long-loved mistress, Rhyme.' In- 
stinct is struggling against respect for classical forms 
and conventions. Though he still implies that his 
own age excels Shakespeare's in literary art and 
finish, his lines are now in marked contrast to his 
earlier vaunts : 

But spite of all his pride, a secret shame 
Invades his breast at Shakespeare's sacred name : 
Awed when he hears his god-like Romans rage, 
He, in a just despair, would quit the stage ; 
And to an age less polished, more unskilled, 
Does, with disdain, the foremost honours yield. 

Yet Aureng-Zebe has less rant and fustian than The 
Conquest of Granada, and sometimes strikes the note 
of true poetry. 1 Heroic drama is tempered with 
some suggestion of Gallic restraint. The heroic 
couplet in drama needed, however, more than half- 
hearted support. When Dryden lost confidence in 
his theory, it was in vain that he continued a con- 
stantly more repugnant practice. When in All for 
Love (1678) he turned to blank verse and a Shake- 
spearean theme, rhymed heroic drama had had its day 
and practically ceased to be. 

The modern critical attitude toward the English 
rhymed heroic play has sometimes been only less 

1 Quotation has not staled the fine passage beginning ' When I 
consider life, 'tis all a cheat,' IV, 1. 



iv DRYDEN, AND THE HEROIC DRAMA 69 

unsympathetic than that of The Rehearsal. So 
patent are the gross excesses of heroic drama that 
some have thought its substance mere rant and 
fustian, and its form rhyme without reason. No- 
where, indeed, are absurdities easier to find; never, 
perhaps, has it been easier to laugh a case out of 
court. Yet the ends of dramatic justice would not 
be defeated by recommendations to mercy. The 
failure of heroic drama lay in its attempt to achieve 
the impossible. Its reach exceeded its grasp, but the 
effort was not ignoble. Dramatists aimed at the 
grand, and hit the grandiloquent. With them the 
1 grand manner' became what Scott, in another con- 
text, called the 'big bow-wow' style. If there is but 
a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is rilled 
by the grotesque. Yet if heroic drama is grotesque, 
it is unfair to regard only its comic facet. Beneath 
the grin of a mediaeval gargoyle may lurk a tragic 
shadow, and the Devil of the Mystery plays may 
touch more than the laughter of the groundlings. 
Love and honour — the unvarying themes of heroic 
drama — are not comic. It is only the angle of 
vision that makes them sometimes appear so. Possibly 
it is not idle fancy to read between the lines of heroic 
drama the tragedy of lost romance. The Fountain 
of Youth that flowed free for the Elizabethans had 
run dry, but its tradition had not been wholly for- 
gotten. If exiles from the court could no longer 
fleet the time carelessly in the Forest of Araen, as 
they did in the golden world, perhaps they sometimes 
turned eagerly from the jaded London world to dis- 
tant lands where fiction outran fact, and fancy still 



70 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, iv 

was free. The heroic dramatist failed to prove that 
it was an easy task to pluck bright honour from the 
pale-faced moon, but despite that failure, he echoes 
faintly an earlier faith in chivalry and love. Doubt- 
less it was a sorry age that confused grandeur with 
sheer bulk, and mistook that which glitters for gold. 
Doubtless heroic tragedy merits, in no small degree, 
the measure that has been meted out to it. But 
though its heroes can no longer hope to touch the 
Happy Isles, and see the great Achilles, there yet 
remains beneath the tinsel of heroic drama some work 
of noble note not unbecoming men that strove with 
Gods. 



CHAPTER V 

ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY (SHADWELL) 

While heroic drama fought its rivalries of love 
and its valorous sieges and conquests in far-away 
lands of incredible adventure, Restoration comedy was 
busy with familiar themes and scenes. As tragedy 
moved farther and farther from ordinary life and 
adopted the unfamiliar accent of verse, comedy de- 
scended from romance to realism and found easiest 
expression in prose. The increasing divergence be- 
tween the paths of tragedy and comedy seems in 
harmony with the classical tradition that sought to 
separate them. But Gallic influence did not prevail 
to the exclusion of tragi-comedy. Heroic drama 
frequently averted tragedy from its heroes, and 
comedy often blended more serious matter with lighter 
themes. Habitually, heroic tragedy uses rhyme, and 
comedy prose, yet early tragi-comedies of Dryden 
and Etherege experiment with rhyme, and tragedy, 
even during the dominant period of rhyme, sometimes 
employs prose as well as blank verse. Dramatists, 
like Dryden, who preferred tragedy, also wrote 
comedy; comic dramatists, like Congreve, essayed 
tragedy. 

In D'Avenant's revival of drama during the inter- 
regnum the emphasis had fallen on the side of more 
serious drama. With the opening of the theatres, 

71 



72 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

comedies of Ben Jonson reappeared on the boards 
and stimulated dramatists like Wilson. The influence 
of Elizabethan romantic comedy, and still more of 
romantic tragi-comedy, so far as it persisted, was 
diverted chiefly toward heroic drama. Some of the 
comedies of Middleton, Rowley, and Brome, however, 
as well as those of Ben Jonson, may be regarded as 
Elizabethan forerunners of the realistic tendencies of 
Restoration comedy. In an age that exalted wit 
rather than humour, and external form rather than 
innate genius, it was natural for drama to turn to 
the comedy of manners. In this tendency, a potent 
force was the influence of the court. The Patent 
Theatres held their license from the King, and play- 
wrights sought the patronage of nobles rather than 
the support of the public. Under the Merry Monarch, 
drama found its most characteristic expression in 
comedy. 1 Comedy mirrored not English nature, 
still less human nature, but the nature of the court. 
Elizabethan comedy had been national ; Restoration 
comedy was local. Not to know London was to 
argue yourself unknown. Restoration comedy was 
'artificial,' not in Lamb's sense that it dealt with an 
unreal Utopia, but in that it arbitrarily narrowed the 
range of comedy, and found love synonymous with 
fashionable intrigue. 

Although the comedy of manners developed in 
Elizabethan days, the ' society comedy ' of the Restora- 
tion may conveniently be regarded as a new school. 

1 Crowne, Dedication to Sir Courtly Nice, 1685 quarto: 'The 
greatest pleasure he [i.e. 'our late most Excellent King'] had from the 
Stage was in Comedy, and he often Commanded me to Write it.' 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 73 

Its real founder has usually been held to be 'gentle 
George' Ethebege (1634-1635 ?-i69i?). Handling 
the comedy of manners with Gallic grace and ease 
stimulated by residence in France, Etherege vividly 
portrays the outward brilliancy of fashionable London. 
His gallants and fops breathe the atmosphere of 
Restoration society, and reflect, though with greater 
wit, the talk and thought of the beau monde. 

Pepys pronounced Etherege's first play, The 
Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub (1664), 'very 
merry.' 1 The merriment — a comic underplot in 
which two gamesters translate the Elizabethan art 
of cony-catching into Restoration ' bubbling ' — is 
blended with a romantic love plot. Two pairs of 
lovers are involved in cross purposes and complica- 
tions not unlike those of Midsummer Night's Dream, 
and unhappily with no magic philtre to aid in the 
solution, which has finally to be effected by a sort of 
tour & amour. A noteworthy feature of the play is 
the deliberate adoption of rhyme in the heroic love 
plot, 2 but the spirit of Elizabethan romance could 
not thus be wooed back. How far poetic imagination 
had departed from the drama may be seen in Colonel 
Bruce's speech when he learns that Graciana has 
given her love to another: 

Fate, thou hast done thy worst, thy triumph sing ; 
Now thou hast stung so home, thou'st lost thy sting. 
I have not power, Graciana, to exclaim (After a pause) 
Against your fault ; indeed you are to blame. (Ill, 6) 



1 Diary, 4 Jan., 1665. Wheatley edition, IV, 325. 

2 Dryden's Rival-Ladies (1664) also employs rhyme somewhat. 



74 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

The comic underplot suggests Gallic influence. 
Dufoy, the saucy French valet, is doubtless a descend- 
ant of the Mascarille of Moliere's pre-Restoration 
comedies. 1 The local colour is very vivid in an 
effective tavern scene (II, 3), in the mention of resorts 
familiar to Samuel Pepys, like the Fleece tavern and 
The Rose, and especially in the evidences of Cavalier 
feeling in the sneers at Cromwell and his followers. 
Sir Nicholas Cully is 'one whom Oliver, for the tran- 
scendent knavery and disloyalty of his father, has dis- 
honoured with knighthood' (I, 2), and when Wheedle 
seeks to cozen him through flattery, it is by suggesting 
that he is the ideal gallant — ' the prettiest, wittiest, 
wildest gentleman about the town, and a Cavalier 
in your heart, the only things that take her ' (IV, 2) . 
Some of the prose dialogue suggests the piquancy 
and sprightliness of Etherege's later comedy. 

Etherege's second play, She Would if she Could 
(1668), emphasizes the characteristics of ' society 
comedy.' Freeman and Courtall are a typical pair 
of gallants whose daily round of life, as Gatty tells 
them, consists in 'every moment rattling from the 
eating-houses to the playhouses, from the playhouses 
to the Mulberry Garden ' (II, 1) . A bit of their own 
dialogue shows the Restoration view of honour: 

Courtall. Fie, fie, the keeping of one's word is a thing 
below the honour of a gentleman. 

Freeman. A poor shift! fit only to uphold the reputation 
of a paltry citizen. (II, 2) 

Lady Cockwood's defence of her own conduct really 
supplies the picture of the lady of fashion: 'Were 

1 Gosse, Seventeenth-Century Studies, p. 240. 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 75 

I every day at the plays, the Park, and Mulberry 
Garden, with a kind look secretly to indulge the un- 
lawful passion of some young gallant ; or did I asso- 
ciate myself with the gaming madams, and were every 
afternoon at my Lady Briefs and my Lady Meanwell's 
at ombre and quebas, pretending ill luck to borrow 
money of a friend, and then pretending good luck 
to excuse the plenty to a husband, my suspicious 
demeanour had deserved this ' (III, 3) . The charms 
of the town and the horrors of the country are por- 
trayed in the very spirit of the Memoirs of Count 
Grammont. 

Etherege's dramatic masterpiece is unquestionably 
The Man of Mode, or Sir F opting Flutter (1676). 
Sir Fop ling Flutter 'lately arrived piping hot from 
Paris,' with six footmen with French names, with 
French phrases at his tongue's end, and French 
dances at the tips of his toes, is one of the most notable 
character types of Restoration comedy. He is an 
ancestor of Lord Foppington, Sir Courtly Nice, 
and many other fops. The Man of Mode reflects 
the usual contempt for the country. Dorimant 
asserts to Harriet as the highest proof of his affection 
that to be with her he could live in the country 
'and never send one thought to London.' But 
Harriet cannot believe the incredible : ' Whate'er 
you say,' she rejoins, 'I know all beyond High 
Park's a desert to you, and that no gallantry can draw 
you farther ' (V, 2) . She herself, however, is even will- 
ing to be ' mewed up in the country again . . . rather 
than be married to a man I do not care for.' Many 
of Harriet's scenes are typical of Etherege's piquant 



76 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dialogue, such as that in which she makes light of 
Dorimant's advances (IV, i), or the one (III, i) where 
she and Young Bellair pretend love to deceive 
their parents — a situation not unlike that in Gold- 
smith's She Stoops to Conquer, where Tony Lumpkin 
and Miss Neville deceive Mrs. Hardcastle by pre- 
tended billing and cooing. So vividly does The Man 
of Mode mirror the Restoration court that Dorimant 
has sometimes been held to portray Lord Rochester ; * 
Medley, Sir Charles Sedley; and Sir Fopling, 'Beau' 
Hewitt. 

Etherege has not always received full recognition 
for his services to the drama. Leigh Hunt's failure 
to include him with Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, 
and Farquhar in his edition of the comic dramatists 
of the period may perhaps have had its effect. The 
intrinsic value of Etherege's work is lessened, to be 
sure, by obvious dramatic defects. He is weak in 
plot construction and in dramatic action ; lacking 
deep emotional power, he glosses over shallowness 
with a superficial veneer of easy flippancy ; he turns 
comedy, from lashing vice with ridicule, to laughter at 
sin as well as at folly. Historically, however, his 
work has marked importance. In the early introduc- 
tion of rhymed verse, in the development of light and 
graceful prose dialogue, animated with wit that some- 
times rises to brilliancy, in the establishment of a 
type of 'society comedy' which led to Congreve and 
Sheridan, and in vivid reproduction of the atmosphere 

1 Spence's Anecdotes, Malone edition, 1820, p. 116, however, quotes 
Lockier as saying that Etherege 'designed Dorimont [sic], the genteel 
rake of wit, for his own picture.' 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 77 

of the Restoration beau monde, Ether ege is entitled 
to high regard both for his actual achievements and 
for what he heralded. 

A strong claimant to some of the honours of early- 
Restoration comedy which seem more properly to 
belong to Dryden and Etherege was William 
Wycherley (1 640 ?-i 716). The story that Wycherley 
as a veteran had told the juvenile Pope that he 
had composed his comedies at very early dates is, 
unfortunately, based on the unreliable authority of 
Spence's Anecdotes, but it at least suggests Wycherley 's 
jealousy of the prior claims of other early comic 
writers. Pope is thus quoted by Spence: 'The 
chronology of Wycherley 's Plays I was well acquainted 
with, for he has told me over and over. Love in a 
Wood he wrote when he was but nineteen; The 
Gentleman Dancing-Master at twenty-one; the 
Plain Dealer at twenty-five ; and the Country Wife 
at one or two-and- thirty.' * If Wycherley wrote 
Love in a Wood at nineteen, it would antedate the 
Patent Theatres, but it is against probability that the 
various plays remained so long in manuscript, and 
that all the allusions to later events were inserted in 
final revisions for later stage presentation. Yet, if 
Wycherley must yield the priority which he probably 
coveted, he surpasses earlier comic dramatists of 
the Restoration in power and dramatic skill. In his 
hands, comedy is grasped with brutal but undeniable 
force, and dragged relentlessly through the mire of 
animalism. For some years, especially while Dryden 
was devoting his best energies to heroic drama, and 
1 Spence's Anecdotes, Malone edition, 1820, p. 125. 



78 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Etherege was so far indulging in his ' crying sin, idle- 
ness' as to lead Rochester to rebuke 'his long seven 
years' silence,' 1 Wycherley was the central figure 
of Restoration comedy. 

From the outset, Wycherley borrowed freely. 
Love in a Wood (1671 ?) owes to Moliere 2 a debt not 
unnatural in a writer who had resided in France 
before the Restoration. Probably Wycherley took 
hints also from Sir Charles Sedley's The Mulberry 
Garden (1668), and the scene in 'St. James's Park at 
night' (II, 1), where Vincent and Dapperwit pursue 
Lady Flippant and Lydia, recalls Etherege's Mulberry 
Garden scene in She Would if She Could (II, 1), where 
Freeman and Courtall pursue Ariana and Gatty. 
The dramatis personce are for the most part Jon- 
sonian 'humour' characters. Ranger, Dapperwit, 3 
Alderman Gripe, and Lady Flippant are obviously 
significant names, and, for that matter, it is hardly 
necessary to define Mrs. Joyner as 'a Match-maker/ 
or Mrs. Crossbite as 'an old cheating jill.' The 
general setting in which these characters move is 
sufficiently suggested in Lady Flippant's speech: 
'Have I not constantly kept Coven t-Garden church, 
St. Martin's, the playhouses, Hyde Park, Mulberry 
garden, and all the other public marts where widows 
and maids are exposed?' (I, 1), and the usual moral 
attitude by her indignant exclamation, 'Fy! madam, 

1 Rochester's Session of the Poets (1675). The lines may have 
prompted Etherege to write The Man of Mode (1676). 

2 UEcole des Maris and VEcole des Femmes, Ward, III, 463. 

3 The description of the various kinds of wit in the conversation 
between Dapperwit and Lydia (II, 1) seems a reminiscence of Touch- 
stone's seven degrees of the lie. 



V ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 79 

do you think me so ill bred as to love a husband ? ' 
(HI, 4 ). 

The Gentleman Dancing-Master (1671) shows Con- 
tinental influences upon Wycherley's work. 'Mr. 
Paris, or Monsieur de Paris, a vain coxcomb, and rich 
city heir, newly returned from France, and mightily 
affected with the French language and fashions,' is 
an earlier Sir Fopling Futter. The dancing-lesson 
scenes seem derived from Calderon's El Maestro de 
Danzar. But French and Spanish sources do not 
supply the English immorality. The conversation in 
the opening scene between Hippolita and her maid 
Prue shows the chasm that separates the ingenue of 
French drama from her Restoration counterpart. 
What the Restoration age thought of itself has excel- 
lent definition in Hippolita's phrase, 'By what I've 
heard, 'tis a pleasant, well-bred, complaisant, free, 
frolic, good-natured, pretty age' (I, 1). And what 
London thought of the country appears in her re- 
mark to Gerrard, 'What young woman of the town 
could ever say no to a coach and six, unless it were 
going into the country' (III, 1). 

In The Country Wife (1673 ?), Wycherley reveals at 
once perhaps the height of his dramatic power and 
the depth of his moral degradation. Borrowing from 
Moliere's UEcole des Femmes something of the general 
situation for his main plot, he transformed the real 
ingenue Agnes into Mrs. Pinchwife, whose nominal 
purity at the outset is due to lack of opportunity to 
sin. The progress of her corruption when she is 
transferred from the country to the fashionable 
world of London is detailed without sympathy either 



80 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

for the degraded wife or for the dishonoured husband. 
Horner, who prosecutes his vices through an assump- 
tion perhaps the most atrocious in all Restoration 
comedy, is Wycherley's real hero. Ingenuity is 
prostituted in the service of animal license. From 
Moliere's UEcole des Maris, Wycherley took the 
device of making an unsuspecting lover the bearer of 
a love letter to another, but in his hands the mild 
deception of a would-be husband becomes grim 
tragedy, when Mrs. Pinchwife makes her husband 
the bearer to Horner of the message of his own dis- 
honour. And when, at the end of the play, Pinchwife 
remains unconscious of the ruin wrought, and the 
curtain falls to a mocking dance of cuckolds, one 
sees the gulf between even the lowest decadence of 
Elizabethan drama and what the Restoration age 
termed 'comedy.' 

Yet, when The Country Wife could not longer be 
tolerated on the stage, Garrick was able to recast some 
of the material of the play in The Country Girl, which 
continued to hold the stage and has had modern 
revivals. Even more striking is the fact that, in 
The School for Scandal, Sheridan, in the story of Sir 
Peter and Lady Teazle, handled essentially the same 
general situation, but in a different atmosphere. Like 
Mrs. Pinchwife, Lady Teazle is a ' country wife' 
who is plunged into the sea of temptation in London 
society, but she is rescued from the waves which 
submerge Mrs. Pinchwife. 

The Plain Dealer (1674) furnishes the best illus- 
tration of Wycheley's indebtedness to French drama. 
Manly, the l plain dealer/ is so obviously taken from 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 8 1 

Moliere's Le Misanthrope as to make it seem remark- 
able that Wycherley could borrow from Moliere so 
much of the letter, and so little of the spirit, of his 
work. The verbal parallels are sometimes so close 
as to be literal translation. 1 Sincerity in word and 
deed is the motto of both Manly and Alceste. Both 
are merciless to flatterers, both object to the misuse of 
the word ' friend ' and to esteem lavished on everybody. 
Yet Moliere would not have created the debased 
Manly, and Wycherley could not have conceived the 
spirit of Alceste. The influence of Moliere is by no 
means confined to the title-role. Oronte suggests 
Major Oldfox in his desire for flattery of his literary 
merits. Celimene plays with Acaste and Clitandre 
as Olivia does with Novel and Plausible, and Olivia's 
duplicity toward them is disclosed, as in Moliere, 
by an exchange of letters. In The Plain Dealer 
Wycherley comments on The Country Wife as does 
Moliere on his own play in the Critique de VEcole des 
Femmes. In a familiar passage in his Letters concern- 
ing the English Nation, 2 Voltaire draws this compari- 
son : ' All Wycherley 1 s strokes are stronger and bolder 
than those of our Misanthrope, but then they are less 
delicate, and the Rules of Decorum are not so well ob- 
served in this Play.' Another possible French in- 
fluence has been noticed in The Plain Dealer, the 
resemblance of the Widow Blackacre to the Countess 



1 Compare the scenes where Philinte takes issue with Alceste, and 
Freeman with Manly, on their insistence upon absolute sincerity 
in speech. Note their identical laconic responses, e.g. 'Oui' — 
'Yes ' ; 'Sans doute' — 'No doubt on't.' 

2 1733 edition, Letter xix, pp. 182-3. 

G 



82 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

in Racine's Les Plaideurs (1668). Wycherley's brief 
experience in law may have supplied some specific 
touches to a portrait which has sometimes been 
unjustly regarded as an absolute copy of Racine. 

The Plain Dealer takes its hero from Moliere, its 
heroines from Shakespeare. Fidelia is a debased 
Viola — a pandar to Manly's base intrigue. Olivia's 
fondness for her, the very name OH via, Fidelia's 
disguise, the duel thrust upon her — all clearly recall 
Twelfth Night. Yet, despite the fact that Wycherley 
not merely borrowed but defaced his borrowings, 
he is more than a faint echo of great originals. The 
skill with which he combined varied materials, the 
vigour, however animal, which he imparted to some 
of his characters, the dialogue through which they 
move and in which they have their being, bear wit- 
ness to dramatic power. Wycherley's Olivia, though 
her nimbleness of wit in dissecting suitors may not 
vie with Portia's, gives a spirited description of cox- 
combry, and at times anticipates Lady Teazle and her 
school. Of Lady Autumn she says, 'She looks like 
an old coach new painted; affecting an unseemly 
smugness, whilst she is ready to drop in pieces'; 
of her daughter, ' She is still most splendidly, gallantly 
ugly, and looks like an ill piece of daubing in a rich 
frame' (II, 1). In the 'Apology' that prefaced his 
State of Innocence, Dryden pronounced The Plain 
Dealer 'one of the most bold, most general, and most 
useful satires, which has ever been presented on the 
English theatre.' l With somewhat the same feeling, 
Congreve's Prologue to Love for Love (1695) declares 
that 

1 Scott-Saintsbury edition of Dryden, V, 115. 



V ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY S3 

Since The Plain Dealer's scenes of manly rage 
Not one has dared to lash this crying age. 

The boldness of Wycherley's satire need not be dis- 
puted, but the hypocrisy which he lashed was not that 
of vicious passion. 'Honest Manly' did well to 
anticipate Burns in asserting, 'I weigh the man, 
not his title ; 'tis not the king's stamp can make the 
metal better or heavier' (I, 1). Yet Wycherley's 
estimate of manhood did not rest on moral integrity. 

Of Wycherley's general merits as a dramatist, per- 
haps the most obvious is strength. 'Manly' Wych- 
erley he was dubbed, and, however brutalized the 
man, and however animal the strength, there runs 
through his work a dominant tone of masculine virility. 
This strength of dramatic power expresses itself in 
plot, character, and comic spirit. Though his plots 
are generally borrowed, they are skilfully constructed 
and combined. The characters are distinct and 
often memorable — Manly, the 'Plain Dealer,' Mrs. 
Pinchwife, the ingenue, the Widow Blackacre, the 
'pert railing Coxcomb' Novel, Sparkish, and Major 
Oldfox. Wycherley's defects are self-evident. His 
strength is perverted by harsh cynicism, bitter irony, 
and animalism. The passions are unmuzzled, and 
virtue is derided. Yet he remains a commanding 
figure in early Restoration comedy. 

The influence of Moliere upon Restoration comedy, 
so apparent in the work of Etherege and Wycherley, 
by no means brought about an essentially Gallicized 
English comedy. Side by side with Gallic influence 
was maintained the English line of tradition. Jon- 
son, who had found an early follower in Wilson, was 



84 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

an acknowledged model to Dryden when he sought 
'a mingled chime Of Jonson's humour, with Corneille's 
rhyme.' * Still more marked homage was paid to 
Jonson in the deliberate theory and practice of 
Thomas Shadwell (1642 ?-i692). In the Preface 
to The Sullen Lovers (1668), his first comedy, Shad- 
well calls Jonson 'the man of all the world, I most 
passionately admire for his excellency in his dramatic 
poetry.' The Humorists (1670) bears, in its title, testi- 
mony to the declarations in its Preface. The Virtuoso 
(1676) has 'humour' characters like Sir Formal Trifle, 
the Orator, and Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, the Virtuoso, 
who is so fond of theoretical knowledge that he con- 
tents himself ' with the Speculative part of Swimming ' 
by practising on a table. Shadwell, indeed, borrowed 
readily from Moliere, as in The Sullen Lovers and The 
Miser (1671), but the Preface to the latter play 
asserts that, ' 'Tis not barrenness of wit or invention, 
that makes us borrow from the French, but laziness.' 
Even in this adaptation of L'Avare, Shadwell added 
numerous characters not in the original, and Bury 
Fair is indebted to the Duke of Newcastle's Trium- 
phant Widow as well as to Les Precieuses Ridicules. 

Prejudged by Dryden's 'But Shadwell never de- 
viates into sense,' Thomas Shadwell has often failed 
to secure a fair hearing. Yet it would be hard to find 
more faithful reproduction of the details of fashionable 
Restoration life than in some of his comedies of man- 
ners. With the usual Restoration coarseness, Shad- 
well portrays vividly the external minutiae of fashion 
and folly. Epsom Wells (1672) is a lively picture of 

1 Prologue to Secret Love (printed 1668). 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 85 

contemporary life. The characters include a pair of 
deceived husbands, Mrs. Jilt, who runs the gauntlet 
of gallantry with many stumblings, Clodpate, a stupid 
Country Justice, who is captured by Mrs. Jilt's 
crafty catering to his known aversion to London, 
Kick and Cuff, bullies whose function is to assault 
unprotected women, and Rain and Bevil, two fast 
Londoners, who are won to marriage, after many 
amours, by Lucia and Carolina. Some chance 
passages in the opening scene illustrate the general 
tone towards wine and women : ' We should no more 
be troubled at the Feavers we get in drinking, than 
the Honourable wounds we receive in Battle ' ; ' We 
live more in a week, than those insipid-temperate- 
fools do in a year ' ; ' Is it not better to let lif e go out 
in a blaze than a snuff ? ' ' Well, the sin's so sweet, and 
the temptation so strong ; I have no power to resist it.' 
Though his earlier plays are so far contemporary 
with those of Etherege and Wycherley that he shares 
with them some of the early distinctions in Restora- 
tion comedy, his comedies, like Dryden's, continued 
long after theirs had ceased. Shadwell satisfied 
the popular taste for opera in his version of The 
Tempest (1673) * and in Psyche (1674), produced with 
elaborate scenery. In revising Timon of Athens (1678), 
the veneration for Shakespeare expressed in Shadwell's 
tribute did not prevent him from adding : ' Yet I can 
truly say, I have made it into a Play.' 2 Among his 

1 This should not be confused with the version by D'Avenant and 
Dryden, acted 1667, printed 1670. 

2 Epistle Dedicatory to The History of Timon of Athens, the Man- 
Eater, 1678 quarto. 



86 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

later plays are A True Widow, The Lancashire Witches, 
The Squire of Alsatia (1688), in which the lively local 
colour of Whitefriars is emphasized with an abun- 
dance of sharpers' slang, and Bury Fair (1689), often 
regarded as his best comic achievement. Almost a 
score of pieces for the stage testify to dramatic activity 
which was not wholly checked either by Dryden's 
satire of the 'last great prophet of tautology' or by 
that prophet's succession to the laureateship left 
vacant by the satirist. It is indicative of the trend 
of the times that three laureates, D'Avenant, Dryden, 
and Shadwell, are prominently connected with the 
history of Restoration drama. Shadwell's own posi- 
tion in that drama is suggested in Rochester's dis- 
passionate words : 

ShadwelVs unfinish'd Works do yet impart 
Great Proofs of Force of Nature, none of Art ; 
With just bold Strokes he dashes here and there, 
Shewing great Mastery with little Care. 1 

Not merely the excesses of heroic drama, but the 
shortcomings of Restoration comedy, were exposed 
in the Prologue to The Rehearsal: 

Our Poets make us laugh at Tragedy, 
And with their Comedies they make us cry. 

Yet comedy in the early years of the Restoration 
finds not unworthy expression in the work of Wilson, 
Dry den, Etherege, Wycherley, and Shadwell. Her- 
alded by the Jonsonian 'humour' comedy, the Res- 
toration comedy of manners had now stepped forth 
to take the centre of the comic stage. Reproducing 
1 The Works of . . . John Earl of Rochester, 17 18, p. 21. 



v ETHEREGE AND WYCHERLEY 87 

without reserve the license and immorality, as well as 
the fashions and foibles of society, it presented a 
brilliant picture of the London world. Superficial, 
almost of necessity, was the comedy that mirrored 
the manners of a superficial society. Yet the type 
of comedy already presented by earlier dramatists 
was to develop greatly in the work of William Con- 
greve, and its genius, purged of offence, was to find 
full expression in Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 



CHAPTER VI 

DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 

The record of early Restoration tragedy and comedy 
alike shows ceaseless conflict between English and 
Continental forces. When Dryden, abandoning 
rhyme, sought in All for Love (1678) a Shakespearean 
model both in verse and subject, the tide of battle 
seems to turn decisively. In reality, the victory of 
Elizabethan practice over classical theory is but 
partial. Dryden's very Preface shows that he serves 
two masters ; for, if he loves 'the divine Shakespeare/ 
he certainly does not hate 'the ancients, who, as Mr. 
Rymer has judiciously observed, are and ought to 
be our masters.' In Thomas Rymer (1641-1713), 
whom Dryden thus quoted with approval, Eliza- 
bethan drama found an intolerant critic. In his 
Preface to an English translation of Rapin's Reflec- 
tions on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie (1674), Rymer 
tried to show 'how unhappy the greatest English 
Poets have been through their ignorance or negli- 
gence of these fundamental Rules and Laws of 
Aristotle.' In the very year of the production of 
All for Love, he concentrated his attack upon Eliza- 
bethan drama in The Tragedies of The last Age, Con- 
sidered and Examined by the Practice of the Ancients, and 
by the Common sense of all Ages, and made an in- 
effective effort to translate theory into practice by 

88 



chap, vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 89 

publishing a rhymed heroic tragedy, Edgar. 1 It is 
perhaps suggestive that, of the six plays which Rymer 
proposed to discuss as examples of 'the choicest 
and most applauded English Tragedies of this last 
age,' three were by Fletcher, two by Shakespeare, 
and one by Jonson. As the attack upon Fletcher 
exhausted his limits of space, Shakespeare escaped 
for the nonce. But these were not passing shots of 
criticism. In A Short View of Tragedy; It's Original, 
Excellency, and Corruption. With some Reflections on 
Shakes pear and other Practitioners for the Stage (1693), 
Rymer still stood by his guns. From the standpoint 
of 'common sense' he aimed in earnest at the license 
of Elizabethan romantic drama, as the light-hearted 
authors of The Rehearsal had done in jest at the ex- 
cesses of heroic drama. 'We want,' he urged, 'a 
law for Acting the Rehearsal once a week, to keep us 
in our senses.' 2 Sense, indeed, there is beneath the 
nonsense of The Rehearsal, but Rymer's 'sense' leads 
him to the conclusion that the 'tragical part' of 
Othello 'is, plainly none other, than a Bloody Farce, 
without salt or savour.' 3 There is little need to 
discuss here verdicts on Rymer ranging from Pope's 
opinion that he was 'on the whole, one of the best 
critics we ever had ' 4 to Macaulay 's brusque charac- 
terization of him as the worst critic that ever lived. 
What is significant is that Rymer was a prophet 

1 Many of Rymer's couplets seem to indicate either extraordinary 
perversities of rhyme or lapses into blank verse. 

2 A Short View of Tragedy, p. 158. 

3 Ibid., p. 146. 

4 Spence, Anecdotes, Malone edition, 1820, p. 85. 



go ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

not without honour in his own day and in later genera- 
tions that felt the classical impulse. The passing of 
rhymed heroic drama may have urged the swing of 
the pendulum toward Elizabethan dramatic models, 
but the weight of classical authority retarded the 
motion. 

The Preface to All for Love shows Dryden's own 
indecision. Though he shakes off the fetters of 
rhyme under which the Prologue to Aureng-Zebe 
had shown him to be restless, the verdict against 
rhyme is qualified : ' In my style, I have professed to 
imitate the divine Shakespeare ; which that I might 
perform more freely, I have disencumbered myself 
from rhyme. Not that I condemn my former way, 
but that this is more proper to my present purpose.' 
He admits, with Rymer, that the ancients 'are and 
ought to be our masters. . . . Yet, though their 
models are regular, they are too little for English 
tragedy ; which requires to be built in a larger com- 
pass.' But the old fear that the Elizabethan compass 
was too large seems to linger : ' The fabric of the 
play is regular enough, as to the inferior parts of it ; 
and the unities of time, place, and action, more 
exactly observed, than perhaps the English theatre 
requires. Particularly, the action is so much one, 
that it is the only of the kind without episode, or 
underplot; every scene in the tragedy conducing 
to the main design, and every act concluding with a 
turn of it.' In contrast with the romantic freedom 
of Antony and Cleopatra, All for Love shows classical 
restraint. Dryden compresses time and action, and 
confines the scene to Alexandria ; Shakespeare sweeps 



vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 91 

in action over a dozen years and in scene over seas 
and continents. Equally marked is the contrast 
between Dryden's simplicity and Shakespeare's 
multiplicity in number of dramatis personce and 
of separate scenes. Dryden's deference to classic 
theories results happily for him in an avoidance of 
some direct comparisons with Shakespeare which 
might have been fatal. He could not hope to 
rival the imperial sweep and infinite variety of 
Shakespeare's world tragedy, but the classical limita- 
tions brought a gain in unity and concentration of 
action. 

Sound sense and becoming modesty are not wanting 
in Dryden's estimate of his own drama. l Since I 
must not be over-confident of my own performance 
after him [Shakespeare], it will be prudence in me to 
be silent. Yet, I hope, I may affirm, and without 
vanity, that by imitating him, I have excelled myself 
throughout the play; and particularly, that I prefer 
the scene betwixt Antony and Ventidius in the first 
act, to anything which I have written in this kind.' 
Dryden's hopes have been realized and his judgment 
usually confirmed. The only play which he wrote 
to please himself pleased both his contemporaries 
and the audiences of the next century, and has found 
high favour with modern critics. Though admittedly 
inferior to Antony and Cleopatra, All for Love may 
fairly be said to be worthy of its great theme. Dry- 
den's Cleopatra cannot stand with one of whom her 
greatest critic wrote, 'Age cannot wither her, Nor 
custom stale her infinite variety.' Yet, in his verse, 
Dryden touched perhaps the height of poetic tragedy 



92 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

of his age. Save Milton's/ Restoration blank verse 
had but rarely triumphed. But Antony's words over 
Ventidius have almost the Shakespearean note, and 
many passages in the drama not merely arrest atten- 
tion, but charm the fancy. 

In the actual manipulation of the plot there are 
marked differences between All for Love and Antony 
and Cleopatra. Shakespeare keeps Octavia and Cleo- 
patra apart ; Dry den, paying toll perhaps to the unity 
of place, brings them together in what Scott calls a 
1 scolding scene. ' Shakespeare's Antony really mourns 
the loss of his first wife, and accepts Octavia with good 
intentions. Shakespeare introduces the defection 
and final repentance of Enobarbus, and the scene 
of the drunken carousal on Pompey's galley, but 
has only a hint of the Dolabella-Cleopatra episode 
which Dryden makes prominent. It is noteworthy 
that perhaps the highest achievement of Restoration 
tragedy, with the possible exception of Otway's 
Venice Preserved, turns not to French masters, but 
to the greatest English dramatist. Yet the reversion 
toward an Elizabethan model is somewhat checked 
by the restraint of classical convention. 

In the same year with All for Love (1678), Dryden 
produced a coarse comedy, Limberham, or The Kind 
Keeper, and, in conjunction with Nathaniel Lee, 
(Edipus, a tragedy of which the theme is classical, 
but in which the introduction of incantations and 



1 Samson Agonistes (1671), which Milton's preface declares 'never 
was intended' for the stage, and which accordingly omitted 'division 
into act and scene,' belongs to poetical rather than to dramatic 
literature. 



VI DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 93 

ghosts (Act III) seems Elizabethan. With Lee he 
again collaborated in The Duke of Guise (1682). To 
Troilus and Cressida (1679), an alteration from Shake- 
speare, Dryden prefixed his important essay on 
The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, in which he 
extols the genius of characterization in Shakespeare 
and Fletcher, a 'limb of Shakespeare/ but cites with 
approval Rymer's strictures on their plots, and advo- 
cates strongly the classical unity of action. The 
Spanish Friar, or The Double Discovery (1681), a 
tragi-comedy, reveals more comic force than was 
usual with Dryden, and suggests that his own con- 
fession that he was 'not so fitted by nature to write 
comedy' * as more serious drama has perhaps been 
accepted too readily as sufficient proof of his medioc- 
rity in comedy. In Scott's opinion, Dryden's dra- 
matic masterpiece is Don Sebastian (1690), a tragedy 
in blank verse and prose. Its length and the poverty 
of its comic parts hardly justify this superlative, but 
the characters of Sebastian and Dorax are strongly 
drawn and their clash results in a powerful dramatic 
scene (IV, 3). In the same year appeared Amphi- 
tryon, in which Dryden follows Plautus and Moliere, 
but with real individuality of treatment, and with a 
vigour coarse, but undeniable. In Cleomenes (1692), 
he took a Spartan hero from Plutarch and fashioned a 
tragedy that suggests the general influence of French 
classical tendencies, though perhaps, as Scott con- 
ceived, with some specific obligation to Fletcher's 
Bonduca. An unsuccessful tragi-comedy, Love Trium- 
phant (1694) has little interest apart from the fact 
1 A Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Essays, Ker, I, 116. 



94 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

that, like Cleomenes, it sometimes employs rhymed 
couplets. 

Dryden's operas deserve 'some mention, not from 
their intrinsic merits, but from their bearings on the 
development of English opera. Albion and Albanius 
(1685), with music by the French bandmaster of 
Charles II, shows the growing influence of French 
opera at a time when Locke and Purcell had already 
given attention to operatic productions. Saint-Evre- 
mond, who professed himself 'no great Admirer of 
Comedies in Musick,' x confessed some interest in their 
' magnificence,' their surprising 'machines,' and their 
sometimes 'charming' music, but found them, on the 
whole, 'very tedious.' To the modern reader, Albion 
and Albanius, and its sequel, King Arthur, or The British 
Worthy (1691) seem to confirm Saint-Evremond's 
caustic definition of opera as 'An odd Medley of Poetry 
and Musick, wherein the Poet and the Musician, 
equally confined one by the other, take a world of 
Pains to compose a wretched Performance.' Dryden's 
operas, however, help to confirm the variety of his 
dramatic product and to illustrate the influence of 
French opera upon the later Restoration stage. 

In the history of Restoration drama, Dryden holds 
the centre of the scene. The foremost of the heroic 
dramatists, he formulated the rules of the school, 
produced its chief examples, and by abandoning rhyme 
sealed its fate. In the return to blank verse and the 
partial recurrence to other Elizabethan dramatic 
standards, he is again the commanding figure. As 
he matured, his critical judgments changed decidedly. 
1 Works of Monsieur de S*. Evremond, 1714, II, 85-87. 



vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 95 

His appreciation of Shakespeare, at first checked 
by the conventional attitude of his day to the 'bar- 
barous age' of Elizabeth, finally outgrew artificial 
restraint. The larger charity of old age led him 
to accept in the main the strictures which Jeremy 
Collier passed upon the looseness of his earlier 
dramatic work. 1 His death closed the century. 
Already the old order was changing, as the tide of 
moral regeneration rose steadily. Of the many 
parts which Dry den played in the history of English 
literature the greatest was not in drama. Yet he 
remains, despite his limitations, the most imposing 
figure in Restoration dramatic history. 

It has been convenient to regard the year 1678 
as the end of the period of rhymed heroic drama and 
to consider, though with some qualifications, All for 
Love as in some sense a point of departure for the res- 
toration of blank verse and other Elizabethan ten- 
dencies. One evidence of the growth of Elizabethan 
influence is the decided increase thereafter in Restora- 
tion adaptations of Shakespeare. More significant, 
however, in the increasing dominance of Elizabethan 
forces is the advent of two powerful tragic dramatists 
who belong essentially to the new period of blank- 
verse tragedy. Among the heroic dramatists Dryden 
towered almost solitary. In blank-verse tragedy, 
Nathaniel Lee and Thomas Otway rose to heights that 
fairly challenged comparison. Through the tawdry 
bombast of Lee's verse break many gleams of true 
poetry, and in Venice Preserved Otway equalled, if he 
did not surpass, Dryden's highest dramatic achieve- 
ment. 

1 Dryden, Preface to the Fables, Ker, II, 272. 



96 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Widely separated in many ways as tragic dramatists, 
Nathaniel Lee (1653 ?-i692) and Thomas Otway 
(1652-1685), were close contemporaries. Their early 
lives had much in common. Both were sons of clergy- 
men, attended one of the great universities, failed 
as actors, and turned to play writing. Both produced 
their first plays in 1675, and both used rhyme, wholly 
or chiefly, in their first three tragedies. This fact 
is but another warning against attempts to establish 
inelastic divisions between literary periods and to 
make individual dramatists conform to arbitrary 
classification. Schooled in rhyme, they outgrew 
early habit, and Lee anticipated Dryden in the actual 
adoption of blank verse. 

In Nero (1675), Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow 
(1676), and Gloriana, or The Court of Augustus 
CcBsar (1676), Lee wrote tragedy, chiefly in rhyme, 
with semi-historical themes and the foreign setting 
usual in heroic drama. His great dramatic success 
The Rival Queens, or The Death of Alexander the Great 
(1677) anticipated All for Love in the use of blank 
verse. Like Gloriana, it is indebted to one of La Cal- 
prenede's romances. The main theme of this famous 
play is the jealousy between Roxana, Alexander's 
first wife, and his second wife, Statira. In the parts 
of the rival queens, actresses vied with each other on 
the English boards for a century and a half. Most of 
Lee's theatrical effectiveness is lost to the reader. 
Yet it is by no means wholly modern criticism that 
has fastened upon the rant and extravagance of the 
play for familiar illustration of the excesses of tragedy 
of the period. 'In what Raptures/ wrote Colley 



vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 97 

Cibber, 1 'have I seen an Audience at the furious 
Fustian and turgid Rants in Nat. Lee's Alexander 
the Great! For though I can allow this Play a 
few great Beauties, yet it is not without its extrava- 
gant Blemishes.' Furthermore, Cibber thought it a 
greater proof of Better ton's skill that he succeeded 
in 'the false Fire and Extravagancies' of Alexander 
than that he triumphed in any of the Shakespearean 
roles. The extravagance is, certainly, apparent. A 
good example is the absurd account (Act IV) of how 
Lysimachus does battle with a lion, pulls out his tongue, 
bestrides, and kills him — a feat which moves Alex- 
ander to pardon the 'active Prince' more than 'all 
the Prayers Of the lamenting Queens.' In the last 
scene, Alexander, maddened by poison, mounts a chair, 
shouting, 'Bear me, Bucephalus, amongst the billows.' 
Amid the obvious extravagances of the play, however, 
its merits have sometimes been undervalued. Not all 
the talk is bombast. Many lines are in familiar 
quotation: "Tis Beauty calls, and Glory shews the 
way;' 'When Greeks joyn'd Greeks, then was the tug 
of War.' 2 The attack of Clytus upon Alexander's 
arrogance at the banquet (Act IV) is fervent and 
effective. There is real as well as 'false fire,' and 
force instead of farce. 

Mithridates (1678) is in marked contrast to Racine's 
earlier play on the same subject. Racine is simpler 

1 Colley Cibber's Apology, Lowe edition, I, 105. 

2 Both lines occur in Act IV. See 1677 quarto, pp. 53, 48. The 
lines beginning 'See the conquering hero comes' are not Lee's, but 
were written by Doctor Morell for a Handel oratorio, and were later 
interpolated in Lee's play, in Act II. 



98 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

in plot, nobler in characterization, and without 
the sensational intrigues and accumulated horrors 
which Lee lavished upon his play. The appearance, 
in the fourth act, of the ghosts of Mithridates's sons, 
who 'set Daggers to his Breast and vanish,' and the use 
of spectacular devices point not across the Channel 
to French drama, but backwards to the Elizabethans. 
Theodosius, or the Force of Love (1680) deals with the 
rivalries of brothers in love. Ccesar Borgia (1680) 
proceeds to its grim conclusion with the strangling 
of the heroine on the stage, and with the poisoning of 
the rest of the chief characters. By the irony of fate 
Machiavelli, the villain, is left to pronounce a moral 
which is singularly inappropriate in his mouth : 

No Power is safe, nor no Religion good, 
Whose Principles of Growth are laid in Blood. 

Lucius Junius Brutus, Father of his Country (1681), 
met its end on the third night, when it was suppressed 
on account of supposed allusions to the vices of Charles 
II. All these dramas are essentially blank-verse 
tragedies, though Theodosius freely admits rhyme. 
The Princess of Cleve (1681) is described in the dedi- 
cation as 'this Farce, Comedy, Tragedy, or meer 
Play.' 'Mere play' seems hardly epithet sufficient 
for this coarse offspring of Madame de La Fayette's 
French romance. Constantine the Great (1684) and 
The Massacre of Paris (1690) revert to blank- verse 
tragedy. 

Despite the rant and fustian associated with Lee's 
name, there is something more than bombast in his 
extravagance. He is one of the few dramatists of the 



vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 99 

last half of the seventeenth century who had the 
poetic touch. The insanity brought on by his dissolute 
life pervades some of his stage characters. His 
poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolled, though often there 
is frenzy without poetry. In the midst of a prosaic 
age, it is a surprise to find embedded in conventional 
tragedy passages which reveal poetic imagination, 
such as that often quoted from the last act of (Edipus: 

Thou, Coward, yet 
Art living, canst not, wilt not, find the Road 
To the great Palace of magnificent Death ; 
Tho' thousand ways lead to his thousand doors, 
Which day and night are still unbarr'd for all. 

Lee had, to take a phrase from one of his dedications, 1 
an 'ungoverned fancy.' Force and weakness, pathos 
and bathos, poetry and rant, mingle in his uneven 
pages. The impure element of insanity in his blood 
overran into his work. In him lived the promise of 
poetry, but the i magnificent death' which his genius 
conceived brought him to a dissolute's grave. Lee 
touched the heights, but sank into the depths. 

The dramatic work of Thomas Otway (1652-1685) 
began with Alcibiades (1675), a conventional rhymed 
tragedy. Don Carlos (1676), based on a theme from 
a French historical romance, shows genuine dramatic 
ability. It won marked favour in its own day, and 
Gosse thinks 'we should be justified in calling Don 
Carlos the best English tragedy in rhyme.' 2 The 
comparative poverty of English rhymed plays, it 

1 Epistle Dedicatory to Theodosius. 

2 Seventeenth-Century Studies, p. 279. 



IOO ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

should be remembered, tempers praise which may 
sound superlative. Titus and Berenice (1677), a 
good version of Racine's Berenice, and The Cheats of 
Scapin (1677), a version of Moliere's Les Fourberies 
de Scapin, were followed by two dull comedies, Friend- 
ship in Fashion (1678), and The Soldier's Fortune (1681, 
or earlier), 1 the latter containing perhaps some per- 
sonal touches drawn from the author's brief military 
service in Flanders. The History and Fall of Caius 
Marius (1680), a version of Romeo and Juliet, roughly 
accentuates the element of comedy, but aggravates 
also the tragic conclusion by allowing Lavinia to 
awake in the tomb before the death of her Marius. 

Otway's real fame rests on his last two tragedies. 
Following the fashion of Lee and Dry den, he now 
adopted blank verse. In The Orphan (1680), Castalio 
and Polydore, twin sons of Acasto, fall in love with 
Monimia, an orphan under Acasto 's guardianship. 
Polydore, ignorant of Castalio's secret marriage to 
Monimia, overhears their plan for what he believes 
is a guilty assignation, and under cover of night keeps 
his brother's appointment. The discovery of the 
marriage leads Polydore to provoke a quarrel in 
which he allows his brother to stab him. Castalio, 
on learning the truth, commits suicide, and Monimia 
takes poison. The action gains in simplicity and 
intensity by being centred in three main characters. 
Usually the action is rapid, though Castalio indulges 
in some descriptive passages, and Acasto in some 
talk against court flattery and hypocrisy. The plot 
turns upon an act of brutality, but the pathos of the 

1 A 'Second Part,' entitled The Atheist, was produced in 1684. 



VI DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY ioi 

conclusion is indisputable. The power of the tragedy- 
lies rather in cumulative force than in detached 
passages of verse. As Monimia, Mrs. Barry won a 
great stage triumph, and even in the reading of the 
drama the improbability on which the plot rests is 
largely forgotten in the pathos of the last acts. 
Grief is portrayed with almost feminine tenderness. 
Otway points back to Elizabethan tragedy. Even 
his diction seems reminiscent of Shakespeare. 1 The 
Orphan may, possibly, be termed the first domestic 
tragedy since Elizabethan drama. The royal person- 
ages and impossible heroes of heroic drama are 
banished from the boards. Rank is forgotten in the 
poignancy of human woe. In an artificial age, Otway 
awakens Elizabethan echoes. 

Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered (1682), is one 
of the greatest tragedies of modern English drama. 
In its own age possibly only Dryden's All for Love can 
sustain the comparison with it, and it touches, in 
the fourth act, perhaps the highest mark of Restoration 
tragedy. The main subject, drawn from the Abbe de 
St. Real's account of a Venetian conspiracy in 161 8, 
is unhappily yoked to a subordinate theme which 
reflects English politics. The doting buffoon, Antonio, 
is Shaftesbury caricatured. His age, sixty-one, his 
garrulity of speech, his desire to be elected King of 
Poland, are mocked in Prologue and in the play. 
The comic scenes detract greatly from the merits of 
the tragedy, yet Taine curiously found them worthy 

1 The description of the witch (II, 1) recalls Shakespeare's method 
in descriptions like that of the 'I do remember an apothecary' speech 
in Romeo and Juliet. 



102 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

of praise. 1 A rough parallel may be suggested in the 
comic scenes of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, though it 
should be said that modern stage revivals of Dr. 
Faustus have done much to prove that even these 
comic passages may be made fairly effective. The 
setting of the play, with perhaps an opening hint 
of Othello, is picturesque. The action, save for the 
intrusion of the comic scenes, advances rapidly, and 
towards the end almost breathlessly. Passion not 
merely is sustained but rises to greater heights. As 
in The Orphan, three characters dominate the action. 
Pierre, a sort of Brutus with the high Roman courage, 
leads Jafher to join the conspiracy against Venice. 
Belvidera, Jaffier's wife, persuades her husband to save 
her father and the Senate by revealing the plot. The 
action unfolds in masterly scenes, where Pierre con- 
fronts his friend with his falseness, and where Jamer, 
conquered by his wife, melts into love, and yields to 
her desire to save her father and the state. On 
the scaffold, Jafher is to pay the penalty of his vacilla- 
tion, but stabs both himself and Pierre. The ap- 
parition of the ghosts of Jafher and Pierre and Bel- 
videra's madness and death strongly suggest the 
Elizabethans. 

The secret of Otway's success is truth to nature. 
The irresolute Jafher, standing midway between the 
tender Belvidera and the iron Pierre, is the centre of 
dramatic conflict. Rant, bombast, and exaggeration 
— the fundamentals of heroic drama — give way to 
human emotion. Pathos does not sink into bathos, 

1 History of English Literature, Edinburgh, 1873-4 edition, III, 
39-4L 



vi DRYDEN, LEE, AND OTWAY 103 

and if Otway's tragedies end in blood, it is wrung 
from the human heart. The almost classical unity 
of action in Otway's two masterpieces results less 
from a following of rules than from a natural impulse to 
centre the attention on the chief characters. It is a 
simplicity which recalls Hawthorne's handling in the 
novel of a few great characters. The phrasing is 
terse and lucid ; the plot sweeps forward with resist- 
less force. 

It is easy to find Otway's limitations and positive 
faults. To evident poverty of comic genius must be 
added lack of high lyrical poetry. The imagination 
does not soar with the Elizabethan gift of song. Nor 
does the breadth of his character conceptions equal 
their depth. Don Carlos, Castalio, and Jafiier are cast 
in one mould. Infatuated with woman's love they 
stand irresolute. The Queen in Don Carlos, Monimia, 
and Belvidera are alike tender, sensitive heroines, 
with the feminine appeal to the sensibilities. Otway 
could not run the whole gamut of human emotion, 
but he touched a few notes with the certainty of a 
master hand. If his tragedies do not inspire awe, 
they touch the gentler spring of pity. Sincerity, 
naturalness, and artistic restraint — qualities rarer 
than ever in Restoration tragedy — are the foundation 
of Otway's dramatic genius. 



CHAPTER VII 

ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 

The main currents of Restoration drama have thus 
far been noted chiefly in the work of its leading writers. 
Yet it is wholly unsafe to disregard the lesser and some- 
times contrary currents of minor drama. The sea of 
dramatic forces cannot, in any case, be charted 
with entire precision, but it is especially dangerous to 
base calculations simply upon the major turns of the 
tide. The convenient grouping of the comedies of 
Etherege, Wycherley, and Shadwell, in distinction 
from the tragedies of Dryden, Lee, and Otway, should 
not lead to the facile assumption that Restoration 
drama can arbitrarily be separated into distinct schools 
of comedy and tragedy. With the exception of Dry- 
den, the leading dramatists seem, perhaps, to conform 
roughly to such classification. Yet Etherege 's comedy 
shows, at least in one instance, the influence of heroic 
drama ; heroic tragedy often adopts a happy issue out 
of its afflictions, and tragi- comedy violates the classi- 
cal distinctions between comedy and tragedy. Even 
disregarding opera, with its complex and varying 
relations to heroic drama, to comedy, and to the 
masque, the more regular drama often oversteps 
precise limits. Especially should the irregularities 
and inconsistencies of many minor dramatists be a 
warning against rigid lines of division. During the 

104 



chap.vh ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 105 

height of rhymed heroic tragedy, Crowne wrote a 
tragi-comedy largely in blank verse, and, long after 
the general adoption of blank verse, he reverted to 
rhymed heroic tragedy. Howard, though advocating 
blank verse in his dispute with Dryden, used rhyme 
to a considerable extent. Even brief study of the 
lesser products of Restoration drama will show that 
convenient generalizations must not be mistaken for 
fixed laws governing dramatic development. 

The terms ' major' and ' minor' are here applied to 
Restoration drama primarily for convenience. The 
objection already urged against rigid separation of 
tragic and comic dramas would apply with at least 
equal force to arbitrary distinctions between drama- 
tists whose importance varies greatly according to 
the critic's point of view. D'Avenant, for example, 
has historical significance wholly out of proportion 
with his literary achievement. Shadwell, whose 
comedies it has been convenient to discuss in con- 
nection with those of Etherege and Wycherley, might 
well be classed with lesser dramatists. With no in- 
tention, then, to insist dogmatically on precise classi- 
fication of individual playwrights, and with no desire 
to essay the impossible task of presenting an all- 
inclusive estimate of the dramatic output of the period, 
attention will be directed in this chapter to some 
aspects of that mass of dramatic writings which, in 
the main, gave bulk rather than distinction to Res- 
toration drama. So continuous is this dramatic 
output, that it is difficult to set even a general 
chronological limit to the plays that might here be 
considered. Roughly speaking, however, the Revolu- 



106 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

tion of 1688 may be adopted as a more or less elastic 
limit. If only the more prominent dramatists were to 
be included, there would be little difficulty in adopting 
definitely the division suggested by Edmund Gosse. 1 
He distinguishes clearly between the earlier group 
of dramatists ; such as Crowne, Mrs. Behn, Wycherley, 
Lacy, Settle, Otway, and Lee, for whom he reserves the 
name of Restoration dramatists, and a later group, 
including Congreve, Cibber, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, 
and Rowe, whom he entitles the 'Orange dramatists.' 
It is true, indeed, as he points out, that the later 
writers are not connected with the reign of Charles 
II, but this is no more insuperable obstacle to their 
inclusion as 'Restoration dramatists' than is the 
death of Queen Elizabeth to the frequent extension of 
the term 'Elizabethan' to the later work of Shake- 
speare and his successors. Thus Leigh Hunt was 
warranted in grouping, in his well-known edition, 
the comedies of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, 
and Farquhar, for not even the end of the seventeenth 
century marks the full conclusion of the dramatic 
period ushered in by the Restoration. Furthermore, 
the apparent gap between the two groups of major 
dramatists is somewhat bridged by the work of minor 
playwrights. 2 In the last analysis, the division lines 
between dramatic periods and the nomenclature 
adopted must remain largely arbitrary, a matter of 

1 Seventeenth-Century Studies, pp. 270-271. 

2 Mr. Gosse's statement that, after the advent of the dramatists 
whose first plays fall between 1670 and 1675, 'twenty years passed 
quietly on without a single new writer, except Southerne,' seems to 
neglect so popular a dramatist as John Banks. 



vn ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 107 

personal preference rather than for conclusive argu- 
ment. In this work, the term 'Restoration drama' 
will include both of Mr. Gosse's groups, but the present 
chapter will in the main discuss playwrights the bulk 
of whose work precedes the Revolution of 1688. 

The widely divergent plays that may be grouped 
under the head of pastorals illustrate the difficulties 
of applying to minor Restoration drama absolute 
distinctions between comedy and tragedy. The very 
disagreements as to the acceptance of particular 
plays as pastorals are an index of their complex 
dramatic elements. For the most part these plays 
have kinship with heroic drama and romance, with 
comedy, and sometimes with rough farce, and with 
the masque. Their nondescript character is evident 
from the fact that one of the first three items in a 
suggestive list of Restoration pastorals 1 is described on 
the title-page as ' A Comical History,' and the others as 
'tragi-comedies,' while Crowne's Calisto (1675) is 
'The Late Masque at Court.' The Thracian Wonder, 
though printed in 1661, belongs, as its usual ascription 
to Webster and Rowley would imply, to an earlier 
dramatic period. Yet its publication so soon after 
the reopening of the theatres is another link between 
Elizabethan and Restoration drama. Not even the 
interregnum had broken the dramatic chain, for 
pastorals like Richard Flecknoe's Love's Dominion 
(printed 1654) and Robert Cox's Actaeon and Diana 
(printed 1656) had found publishers. Tasso's Aminta 
and Guarini's Pastor Fido, two classic Italian pastorals 
already influential through Elizabethan translations, 

1 Jeannette Marks, English Pastoral Drama, pp. 179-180. 



108 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

appeared in Restoration versions. 1 The lyric impulse 
of the Elizabethans had, indeed, passed, and the 
charm of naturalness had been lost in an artificial 
age. Simplicity and spontaneity, so necessary to re- 
deem the pastoral from conventionality, were miss- 
ing in Restoration days, but the earlier tradition had 
not been wholly forgotten. Restoration dramatic 
pastorals usually exhibit a blend of comic, tragic, and 
musical elements. The Thracian Wonder, which bears 
marked resemblance to The Winter's Tale, includes 
some rustic scenes and shepherds' dances, mingles 
verse with prose, and has heroic as well as pastoral 
elements. Thomas Killigrew's two-part Bellamira in- 
troduces an 'Arcadian Nymph' who dwells in a cave 
with her brother, and a King and Prince who battle 
with Spaniards as well as invade Arcadia. Shad well, 
who fashioned The Royal Shepherdess (1669) from the 
material of ' one Mr. Fountain of Devonshire . . . en- 
deavour'd to carry on those few Humors, which were 
but begun by him ; and (to satisfie the Concupiscence, 
as Mr. Johnson calls it, of Jigge and Song) I designed 
as fit occasions for them as I could.' Crowne's 
Calisto, with songs and music that link the masque 
with opera, has pastoral elements in its nymphs and 
shepherds. The Constant Nymph, or The Rambling 
Shepheard (1677), 'written by a Person of Quality,' 
borrows from Sidney's Arcadia, and largely uses the 
heroic couplet instead of the blank verse of tragedy 
or the prose of comedy. At almost every turn may 
be noted divergencies in subject, treatment, and 

1 Dancer's translation of the former in 1660, Settle's rendering of 
the latter in 1677. 



vii ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 109 

versification from what may be regarded as the 
normal standard, but cannot possibly be accepted as 
the fixed practice, of Restoration drama. Dull, 
monotonous, vulgar, and tawdry, the Restoration 
pastoral usually is. It holds, doubtless, the least 
honoured position in the dramatic record of the time, 
yet some interest attaches to it as proof of the con- 
tinuity of Elizabethan dramatic influences and of 
the complexity of dramatic development during the 
Restoration. 

The dramatic pastoral may perhaps be regarded 
as a by-product of Restoration drama. Attention 
should now be directed to more regular tragic and 
comic products of minor Restoration drama. Often 
these lesser plays afford further illustration of prac- 
tices and tendencies apparent in the work of leading 
dramatists. Here, for example, may be multiplied 
the proofs of Continental influences upon Restoration 
drama, yet here again is disproof of the theory that 
English drama became denationalized. The use of 
Spanish material, already observed in early comedies 
of Dryden and Wycherley, in Digby's adaptations 
from Calderon, and in Tuke's Adventures of Five 
Hours (1663), is continued in Crowne's Sir Courtly 
Nice (1685), taken from Moreto, and in various 
plays of Mrs. Aphra Behn, such as The Dutch Lover 
(1673) an d The Rover (1677), said to reflect, in part, 
Spanish influences. The French romances of La 
Calprenede and Madeleine de Scudery, which con- 
tributed to the work of Dryden and Lee, supplied 
material for Lord Orrery, Settle, Mrs. Behn, and 
John Banks. Translations, adaptations, and borrow- 



HO ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ings of varying importance from French drama con- 
stantly appear in minor Restoration drama, as, 
for example, in the work of Charles Cotton, John 
Dancer, Mrs. Catharine Philips — the ' matchless 
Orinda' — Sir Charles Sedley, Ravenscroft, and 
Crowne. Despite manifest and frequent debts to 
foreign sources, however, the lesser as well as the 
greater Restoration dramatists abundantly disprove 
the assumption that English drama became an 
essentially foreign product. Plots, names, and 
phrases were freely appropriated from Gallic drama, 
but external imitation did not bring reproduction 
of the spirit and genius of French drama. To the 
influence of Corneille was added that of Jean Racine 
(1639-1699). In the decade following his first 
signal success in Andromaque (1667), Racine so far 
perfected French classical drama that English play- 
wrights began to imitate the new master of tragedy. 
Yet his subtle analysis of character, his strength of 
dramatic conception, and his noble diction seem 
almost travestied in the conscious heroics and bombast 
of English heroic drama. The humanity of Moliere is 
forgotten in the heartless immorality of Restoration 
comedy. Again and again do the lesser dramatic 
pieces of the English stage follow the letter of Gallic 
example, not the spirit. 

Consideration of the work of a few individual 
dramatists will effectually disprove any theory of 
rigid separation between comic and tragic writers. 
Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698), who collaborated 
with Dryden " in The Indian Queen, wrote both 
tragedies and comedies. His most successful comedy, 



vii ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA in 

The Committee (1662), 1 satirizes the underhanded 
methods of committees of sequestration of property 
in the later Commonwealth period. Teague, an 
early Irish comic character, if deficient in dialect, 
has Irish wit enough to ' take the Covenant ' by steal- 
ing a copy of it from a bookseller. The Great Favour- 
ite, or The Duke of Lerma (1668), a tragedy, has 'some 
Scenes in blank Verse, others in Rhime,' despite 
Howard's protest against Dryden's theory of rhyme. 
The Epilogue tersely describes it as ' A melancholly Plot 
ty'd with strong Lines.' Sir Charles Sedley (1639 ?- 
1 701), whose rhymed heroic tragedy, Antony and 
Cleopatra (1677), was, in Shadwell's ill-founded judg- 
ment, the 'only' tragedy '(except two of Jonson's 
and one of Shakespear's) wherein Romans are made 
to speak and do like Romans,' 2 produced three 
comedies. In The Mulberry Garden (1668), partly 
based on Moliere, Sedley mingles prose with heroic 
couplets somewhat as did Etherege in The Comical 
Revenge. Bellamira, or The Mistress (1687), based 
on the Eunuchus of Terence, is a gross, but vigorous, 
satirical comedy. 3 Edward Ravenscroft (fl. 1671- 
1697) whose assiduous efforts were largely devoted 
to unscrupulous reworking of old veins of comic 
ore, also adapted Titus Andronicus, and produced a 
tragi-comedy and a tragedy. His theatrical successes 



1 The date of its production has often been confused with that of 
its publication, 1665. But Evelyn witnessed it 27 November, 1662, 
and Pepys, 12 June, 1663. 

2 Epistle Dedicatory to A True Widow, 1679 quarto. 

3 The Grumbler was not printed until 1702. It was acted in 1754 
as a farce. 



112 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

were largely due to bold pilferings from Moliere, 
and to the farcical abandon of such a piece as his 
London Cuckolds (1682). 

John Crowne (d. 1703 ?) began a prolific dramatic 
career with a tragi-comedy, Juliana, or The Princess 
of Poland (1671), chiefly in blank verse, turned in the 
next year to rhymed historical tragedy, and in 1675 
produced Andromache, a prose adaptation of Racine, 
The Country Wit, a comedy partly drawn from 
Moliere, and Calisto, a court masque. Among his 
plays during the next decade are a heavy two-part 
heroic drama, The Destruction of Jerusalem, several 
blank- verse tragedies, and a satirical comedy, City 
Politiques. Sir Courtly Nice, or It cannot Be (1685) 
marks the height of his dramatic achievement. The 
titular hero, though reproducing the type of fop 
already evident in Etherege, may be regarded as 
Crowne's best contribution to the gallery of Restora- 
tion comedy portraits. Crowne's later dramatic 
work shows some tendency to revert to earlier dra- 
matic influences, for The Married Beau (1694) is a 
blank-verse comedy which, in Dr. Ward's judgment, 
' may be regarded as an attempt to return to the 
style of Fletcher and Shirley,' 1 and Caligula (1698) 
is a tragedy in rhyme. Some of Crowne's indifferent 
tragedies seem to have achieved their success largely 
through scenic aids, while his comedies are without 
subtlety of characterization, yet ' little starch Johnny 
Crowne' achieved a respectable measure of stage 
success. To the modern reader he may serve as an 
illustration of the blend of dramatic types and styles 
in the work of a single playwright. His dramatic 
1 Ward, III, 407. 



vn ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 113 

reputation must rest almost wholly upon the creation 
of a single character, Sir Courtly Nice. 

While many of the lesser dramatists, with more or 
less impartiality, divided their efforts between tragedy 
and comedy, with not infrequent departures into 
tragi-comedy, opera, or masque, there are those 
whose names are primarily associated with a single 
dramatic type. John Lacy (d. 1681), comedian, 
besides adapting comedies of Moliere and Shake- 
speare, made original excursions into the field of 
comedy. The rough realism of The Old Troop, or 
Monsieur Raggou (1664?), his best dramatic effort, 
doubtless owed somewhat to Lacy's own military 
experience during the Civil War. Elkanah Settle 
(1 648-1 724), on the other hand, takes his place with the 
heroic dramatists. Beginning tragedy literally in 
'Cambyses' vein' with his youthful Camay ses, King 
of Persia, he achieved a spectacular success in The 
Empress of Morocco (1671 P), 1 which led to a pamphlet 
controversy against the combined attacks of Crowne, 
Dryden, and Shadwell. Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa 
(1676), based on Georges de Scudery's play from his 
sister's romance, sufficiently answers the rhetorical 
question of its Epilogue as to the deadly efficacy of 
heroic love : 

What need of Siege and Conquest in a Play, 
When Love can do the work as well as they ? 

To the 'Doeg' of Dryden's satire still attaches the 
unsparing epithet 'heroically mad.' 

1 The first edition, 1673, contains valuable drawings which show 
the attention paid to scenic effects. 

1 



Ii 4 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Upon the unlucky head of Mrs. Aphra Behn (1640- 
1689) have been visited many of the sins which she 
shared in common with her contemporaries. 'The 
chaste Aphra' does, assuredly, justify by her works 
her reputation for immorality. Yet perhaps some- 
thing should be forgiven a writer who produced in 
Oroonoko a humanitarian novel, and who revealed 
beneath her licentiousness in drama some evidences 
of lively ingenuity. Before turning to playwriting 
she had an adventurous career. A barber's daughter, 
who had spent her youth at Surinam, she returned 
to England shortly before the Restoration, married 
a Dutch merchant who brought her into some notice 
at the court of Charles II, and after his death served 
as a spy at Antwerp, was shipwrecked, and finally 
returned to London, where she supported herself 
as a writer. Her dramatic career began in 1671 
with the production of a tragi-comedy, The Forced 
Marriage, and a coarse comedy, The Amorous Prince. 
A single tragedy, Abdelazar, two later tragi- comedies, 
and a farce entitled Emperor of the Moon (1687), are 
less characteristic than the dozen or more comedies 
from her prolific pen. Of these, perhaps the best 
examples are The Rover, or The Banished Cavaliers 
(1677 ; Second Part, 1681) and The Roundheads 
(1682), which reecho the militant notes of the Civil 
War, and The City Heiress (1682). With the un- 
scrupulousness of her friend Ravenscroft, though 
with more than his ability, Mrs. Behn appropriated 
dramatic materials wherever she found them — in 
Killigrew, Brome, Middleton, Tatham, or Moliere. 
With no more hesitation she stooped to conquer by 



vn ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 115 

pandaring to the coarsest taste. Yet her best come- 
dies have vivacity of action as well as depravity of 
speech, and some touches of lively, though habitu- 
ally gross, humour. 

Nahum Tate (165 2-1 7 15) merits perhaps less 
attention as a dramatist than as a poet. His continu- 
ation of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel in a second 
part is directly indebted to Dryden for its most notable 
passages, and his metrical version of the Psalms 
was effected in collaboration with Nicholas Brady, 
but ShadwelPs successor to the poet laureateship 
holds some place among the minor poets of his day. 
Tate had not an independent or original mind. 
He was most at home in collaboration with other 
writers, or in imitation of their work. His dramatic 
efforts were largely concerned with adaptations from 
Shakespeare, Chapman, Fletcher, and Webster. 
In 1 68 1 and 1682 he produced adaptations of Richard 
II, Coriolanus, and King Lear, eliminating the fool, 
and allowing Cordelia to marry Edgar. Despite 
Addison's early protest in The Spectator (No. 40), 
this perversion of Lear continued to hold the stage 
until almost the middle of the nineteenth century. 
Such adaptations, not merely of Shakespeare, but of 
other Elizabethans, emphasize at least the continued 
attention paid by Restoration playwrights to earlier 
English drama. 

To the playwrights already mentioned might 
readily be added a host of mediocrities. The Duke of 
Newcastle, loyally pronounced by his Duchess, who 
shared his dramatic activities, 'the best lyric and 



Il6 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dramatic poet of his age/ 1 Sir Robert Stapylton, 2 
and many others show that the dramatic contagion 
touched rank and title. Edward and James Howard, 
and ' sing-song' Thomas D'Urfey are perhaps sufficient 
examples of the prolix mediocrity of writers who lacked 
even the distinction of title. Sufficient illustration, 
however, has already been found in minor Restora- 
tion drama of the continuity of English dramatic 
traditions, even during the height of Continental 
influences, of the constant inter-relation between 
different types of dramatic writing, and of the union 
in the work of individual dramatists of both comic 
and tragic impulses. 

Brief mention may be accorded to some matters 
which, though primarily connected with theatrical 
history, are not without direct bearing upon the drama 
itself. The development of scenic and musical 
elements, already noted at some length in connec- 
tion with the rise of heroic drama and the opera, 
had increasing influence. The Prologue to Tun- 
bridge-Wells (1678) declares that 

every Scribler sends his Envoys out 
To fetch from Paris, Venice, or from Rome, 
Fantastick fopperies to please at home. 
And that each act may rise to your desire, 
Devils and Witches must each Scene inspire. 
Wit rowls in Waves, and showers down in Fire. 
With what strange Ease a Play may now be writ, 
When the best half's compos'd by painting it ? 
And that in th' Ayr, or Dance lyes all the Wit ? 

1 Ward, III, 332, footnote 3. 

2 Stapylton's plays are The Slighted Maid (1663), a comedy, The 
Step-Mother (1664), a tragi-comedy, and Hero and Leander (1669), 
a tragedy. 



vii ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 117 

Dorset Gardens Theatre, opened in 1671, devoted 
itself so frankly to elaborate scenic effects that 
Dryden found occasion to allude to ' the gaudy house 
with scenes.' 1 Colley Cibber, in his account of the 
Patent Theatres, says that Sir William D'Avenant, 
to offset the success of the King's Company, 'was 
forced ... to introduce a new Species of Plays, 
since call'd Drama tick Opera's, of which kind were 
the Tempest, Psyche, Circe, and others, all set off with 
the most expensive Decorations of Scenes and Habits, 
with the best Voices and Dancers.' 2 French actors 
and 'Italian merry-andrews ' who 'quite debauched 
the stage with lewd grimace ' left ' their itch of novelty 
behind.' 3 To such conditions the minor Restoration 
playwrights responded by increasing attention to 
theatrical rather than to dramatic effects. 

It seems advisable to conclude this chapter with 
some account of two dramatists who form convenient 
links between the earlier and later Restoration writers 
of tragedy. John Banks (fl. 1696) began a pro- 
lific career with The Rival Kings (1677). 4 His real 
success came in exploiting the vein of English his- 
torical tragedy. The Unhappy Favourite (1682) 
deals with the Earl of Essex; The Island Queens, 
printed in 1684, and produced as The Albion Queens 
in 1704, deals with Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of 
Scots; Vertue Betray' d (1682), with Anne Boleyn. 

1 ' Prologue for the Women,' Works, Scott-Saintsbury edition, X, 
317. See also Prologue, Ibid., X, 318-320. 

2 Apology, Lowe edition, I, 94. 

3 Dryden's ' Epilogue to the University of Oxford, 1673,' Works, 
Scott-Saintsbury edition, X, 382. 

4 The date and title suggest the influence of Lee's Rival Queens. 



Ii8 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

A later tragedy, Cyrus the Great, or The Tragedy of 
Love (1696), reverts more definitely to the stock 
material of heroic drama in basing its theme on 
Madeleine de Scudery's romance. Despite an evident 
prejudice for the Continental unities and the simpli- 
fication of scenes and characters, Banks ranted in 
' Cambyses' vein/ and indulged in Cyrus the Great in a 
gruesome episode in which Panthea reassembles on 
the battlefield the disjecta membra of her dead lord. 
Banks won theatrical, rather than dramatic, success, 
and stimulated interest without touching real 
emotion. 

A far more important link between earlier and 
later tragedy was Thomas Southerne (1660-1746). 
Although one of his comedies reminded Dryden of 
Terence, 1 Southerne is now remembered as a writer 
of tragedy. The Loyal Brother, or The Persian Prince 
(1682), is a blank- verse tragedy with some admix- 
ture of prose. A succession of comedies was followed 
by two very considerable successes in tragedy, The 
Fatal Marriage, or The Innocent Adultery (1694), and 
Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave (1696), both founded 
on novels of Mrs. Behn. These plays found con- 
tinued favour in the eighteenth century, the former, in 
Garrick's version, Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage 
(1757), the latter, in Hawkesworth's alteration in 
1759. Both adapters removed from these works 
the scenes of dull comedy. The Fate of Capua (1700) 
and The Spartan Dame (17 19), in which he turned 
to classical themes, and an unimportant comedy 

1 Dryden's verses, ' To Mr. Southern ; on his comedy called The 
Wives Excuse,' in 1692 quarto of The Wives Excuse. 



vii ASPECTS OF MINOR RESTORATION DRAMA 119 

prolong Southerne's dramatic career through the 
first quarter of the eighteenth century. Yet his most 
successful achievement was in the tragedies which, 
at the close of the seventeenth century, help to bridge 
the gap between the Restoration and the Augustan 
age. With something of Otway's dramatic pathos, 
though without his genius, Southerne points the 
way, perhaps, toward the sentimental drama of the 
eighteenth century. The school which Richard Steele 
is usually held to have founded seems foreshadowed, 
however unconsciously, in the almost feminine appeal 
of Otway and Southerne to the sentiment of pity. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 

The Revolution of 1688 is without the immediate 
significance to English drama of the Restoration of 
1660. Political change did not bring forthwith 
dramatic reform. Yet, if the outward aspect of drama 
responded but slowly to the passing of the old regime, 
its inner life soon felt the stirrings of a new spirit. 
As the license of the earlier Stuart Court gave way 
to the healthier moral tone of the reign of William 
and Mary, a different standard was set for imitation. 
Latent forces of decency and moral restraint, which 
had been obscured by the dazzling vices of royalty 
and fashion, now began to reassert themselves. 
The very excesses of the Restoration brought 
natural reaction. If the pendulum had swung 
during the interregnum to the extreme of dramatic 
restraint, it had touched after the reopening of the 
theatres the extreme of license. An awakening moral 
sense could neither applaud nor condone the sins 
of the drama. Disapproval soon grew to direct 
attack. In his Prefaces to Prince Arthur (1695) and 
to King Arthur (1697), 1 Sir Richard Blackmore remon- 
strated with the excesses of recent dramatists, and, 
early in 1698, George Meriton issued a pamphlet, 

1 These two 'heroick poems' and their separate prefaces have 
often been confused. The later preface highly praises Congreve's 
Mourning Bride. 

120 



CHAP.vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 121 

Immorality, Debauchery, and Profa[ne]ness Exposed. 
Random attacks, however, turned to concentrated 
assault in Jeremy Collier's A Short View of the Im- 
morality, and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698). 
With much of the Puritan spirit whose intolerant ex- 
pression had brought disaster to William Prynne, Col- 
lier set himself squarely against prevalent immorality 
in drama. It should be said, at the outset, that not 
Jeremy Collier alone, but the power of public opinion, 
carried the day. Not in the virulence of his invective, 
but in the essential soundness of his cause, lay Col- 
lier's real strength. It was his good fortune to voice 
audibly the growing convictions of many. The soil 
was ready for good seed. A generation earlier he 
might have raised the voice of protest with no more 
effect than the blind poet who had fallen upon evil 
days. Yet if Collier is not to be regarded as the 
single-handed reformer of the stage, it is idle to ignore 
the outspoken, though ill-balanced, energy with which 
he formulated a more or less intangible public senti- 
ment. To the slowly gathering force of moral re- 
form he gave direct impetus. His definite challenge 
to Restoration dramatists could not be evaded. 
The number and energy of the replies evoked from 
his adversaries, and the confessions of their leader, 
Dryden, show that he had struck home. 

Before entering upon a more detailed examination 
of Collier's work and its effect upon the tone of 
English drama, it will be well to resume the course 
of dramatic history with some account of the later 
dramatists whose careers began before the bursting 
of the storm, and who maintained even to the end 



122 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

much of the earlier spirit of Restoration drama. The 
last decade of the seventeenth century marks the 
advent of three important writers in whose work 
Restoration comedy touches its zenith — Congreve, 
Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. With a single exception, 
Congreve's plays preceded Collier's attack, but 
much of Vanbrugh's work and all of Farquhar's 
followed it. 

In an age that prided itself on wit and elegance of 
style, William Congreve (1670-1 729) was the wittiest 
and perhaps most graceful writer of English comedy. 
Born near Leeds, schooled at Trinity College, Dublin, 
Congreve came to London as a law student, pub- 
lished a minor novel, contributed to a poetical trans- 
lation of Juvenal, and at twenty- three had won 
Dryden's favour and general applause with his first 
comedy, The Old Bachelor (1693). Dryden declared 
that 'he never saw such a first play in his life, and 
that the author not being acquainted with the stage 
or the town, it would be a pity to have it miscarry 
for want of a little assistance ; the stuff was rich in- 
deed, only the fashionable cut was wanting.' 1 This 
assistance Dryden himself helped to give, and 
Southerne, an early sponsor for Congreve, generously 
hailed him as Dryden's successor. 2 In comparison 
with Congreve's later work, The Old Bachelor won 
disproportionate success. Its characters were largely 
conventional, yet even Captain Bluffe, a cowardly 
blusterer anticipated in the first English comedy, 

1 Gosse, Life of William Congreve, pp. 33-34. 

2 See his striking lines To Mr. Congreve, on The Old Bachelor, Mer- 
maid edition of Congreve, p. 3. 



viii CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 123 > 

Ralph Roister Doister, has a certain vividness and in- 
dividuality. Fondlewife recalls Wycherley's Pinch- 
wife, and Heartwell, the 'surly old Bachelor, pre- 
tending to slight Women, secretly in love with 
Silvia,' has some touches of Manly, while some of 
the characters of the underplot suggest Jonsonian 
humours. Yet if The Old Bachelor somewhat lacks 
originality in characterization, Bellmour's words in 
the opening act might well have been Congreve's 
own invocation, 'Wit, be my faculty !' It was more 
than a decade and a half since Etherege had produced 
The Man of Mode and Wycherley had taken a cynical 
farewell of comedy in The Plain Dealer. With a 
style more graceful than Etherege's and wit more 
sparkling than Wycherley's, Congreve showed that 
there had appeared a new master of comedy. 

Though far less gross and brutal than Wycherley, 
Congreve has a tone of subtle but pervasive im- 
morality which he later strove vainly to disprove. 
In answer to Jeremy Collier he urged that the end 
of a play pointed the moral. Unfortunately Collier 1 
found the real moral of The Old Bachelor in its closing 
lines : 

What rugged ways attend the noon of life ! 
Our sun declines, and with what anxious strife, 
What pain we tug that galling load, a wife ! 

In the Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to his next play, 
The Double-Dealer (1693), Congreve makes an uncon- 
vincing reply to the charge that 'some of the ladies 

1 A Defence of the Short View . . . Being a Reply to Mr. Congreve 1 s 
Amendments, &c. And to the Vindication of the Author of the Relapse, 
1699, p. 19. 



124 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

are offended' by its immorality. It is fair to note, 
however, that, in the denouement, Cynthia's virtue 
escapes even Maskwell's plots and is rewarded by 
union with Mellefont, Lady Touchwood is driven off 
by her husband with an orthodox 'Go, and thy own 
infamy pursue thee/ and Maskwell is seized and held 
for punishment. Though all is not well that ends well, 
the curtain no longer falls on the dishonoured husband 
amid derisive laughter. 

In the Epistle Dedicatory, Congreve claims origi- 
nality of plot and deliberate intention ' to preserve the 
three unities of the drama.' Yet the admirable 
scandal scene (III, 3) recalls Olivia's scene with 
Novel and Plausible, 1 and Moliere's still earlier pas- 
sages in Le Misanthrope, while the obscure turns in 
the labyrinth of plot are even further complicated by 
a network of bypaths and meanders. Congreve has 
perplexity, not unity, of action. The characters of 
The Double-Dealer are familiar types — Mellefont, 
the lover, Careless, the confidant, Maskwell and 
Lady Touchwood, villains, Lord Froth and Brisk, 
coxcombs, Lady Froth, 'a great Coquette,' Lady 
Plyant, 'insolent to her Husband, and easy to any 
pretender.' Lady Plyant's sesquipedalian words 
possibly suggest Mrs. Malaprop, but there is little 
'mathemacular demonstration,' to borrow one of 
her phrases, of Mrs. Malaprop's 'nice derangement 
of epitaphs.' Even with the aid of the soliloquy, a de- 

1 Wycherley, The Plain Dealer (II, 1). Ye,t Cynthia turns with 
disgust from the gossip which Olivia welcomes. Cf. Maria's and 
Sir Peter Teazle's disgust with the scandal-mongers in The School for 
Scandal. 



vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 125 

vice comparatively infrequent in Restoration comedy, 
though defended by Congreve in the Epistle Dedi- 
catory, the devious ways of Maskwell are followed with 
difficulty. Plot is subordinated to brilliancy of dia- 
logue. The numerous technical defects in dramatic 
construction perhaps account for the somewhat in- 
different reception at first accorded The Double-Dealer, 
but its vividness of characterization and vitality of 
phrase eventually established it in a popularity 
which lasted through the eighteenth century. 

Love for Love (1695) was the first play produced 
at the new Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, by Betterton 
and the actors who had revolted from the Patent 
Theatres. Its success was well merited, for in it wit 
is married to grace of diction. Valentine, a young 
spendthrift who is lucky in love, has had many 
successors in English comedy, among them, Young 
Honeywood in Goldsmith's Good Natur'd Man and 
Charles Surface. His wit does not stop with his 
assumption of madness. In a way that curiously 
recalls Hamlet, 1 he ' uses his folly like a stalking-horse 
and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.' 
Jeremy, his witty servant, takes after his master, as 
do Sheridan's Fag and David. Jeremy, who 'waited 
upon a gentleman at Cambridge,' cites Epictetus, 
Seneca, Plato, and Diogenes in a single speech, as 
readily as Fag alludes to Jupiter's masquerades in 
love. The ceaseless showers of wit fall alike on 
master and man. Sir Sampson Legend, Valentine's 
father, is a vigorous portrait of the crusty father. 
Scandal is the familiar confidant of Restoration 
1 Compare, e.g. IV, 2, with some of Hamlet's speeches to Polonius. 



126 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

comedy, not too busy to neglect his own intrigue. 
Foresight, ' pretending to understand Astrology, 
Palmistry, Physiognomy, Omens, Dreams, &c,' though 
in point of fact not an anachronism, seems dramati- 
cally a Jonsonian character, out of place amid Con- 
greve's beaux and belles. Miss Prue, an admirable 
example of the Restoration perversion of the ingenue, 
is essentially of the same type as Wycherley's Mrs. 
Pinchwife and Miss Hoyden in Vanbrugh's Relapse. 
Miss Prue has some admirable scenes — one where 
Tattle initiates her into the mystery of saying one 
thing while meaning the opposite — another with her 
sailor suitor Ben, 1 whose awkward advances lead to a 
mutual disagreement which anticipates the scene 
of Tony Lumpkin and Miss Neville. Comedy borders 
dangerously upon farce when Tattle, thinking he is 
wedding Angelica in nun's disguise, is tricked into 
marriage with Mrs. Frail — a situation possibly saved 
by the fact that the marriage takes place off the stage. 
Congreve's Dedication of the play shows that he was 
not unconscious of the danger in its length, but un- 
flagging zest of dialogue, skill in characterization, 
and more effectiveness in plot construction than he 
usually attained made Love for Love an acting comedy 
success. 

Congreve's sole tragedy, The Mourning Bride 
(1697), has often been viewed as a solitary excursion 
into an alien dramatic field, and unrelated to his 
comic work. Yet in the villainy and passion of Mask- 
well and Lady Touchwood may be found strains 

1 Gosse, Congreve, p. 76, calls Ben 'the founder of a long line of 
stage-sailors, of whom he is the earliest specimen.' 



vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 127 

of tragic suggestion, just as Wycherley's Plain Dealer 
does not depart too far from Le Misanthrope to forget 
entirely the grim aspect of misanthropy. Doubtless 
it would be fantastic to exaggerate in Wycherley and 
Congreve the sombre threads in the weave of comedy, 
yet the latter' s venture into the realm of tragedy is 
perhaps not an extraordinary and unheralded phe- 
nomenon. From the modern standpoint it seems the 
irony of fate that The Mourning Bride achieved in its 
own day greater success than Congreve's comedies. 
It held the boards through most of the eighteenth 
century, and the passage at the end of the first scene 
of the second act elicited Doctor Johnson's famous eu- 
logy of it as 'the finest poetical passage he had ever 
read ' 1 — a dictum whose extravagance has reacted 
too severely against even a reasonable appraisal 
of a fine passage. The customary modern ver- 
dict, that Congreve's departure from comedy proved 
his incapacity for tragedy, is perhaps testimony to 
the change of popular taste quite as much as to the 
author's lack of judgment in essaying an uncongenial 
task. Plot and characters are, indeed, artificial, and 
the probabilities are stretched almost beyond the 
limits of the possibilities. That its writing took three 
years suggests that it was a tragedy not born, but 
made. Yet Congreve's shortcomings are those of all 
but a few of the Restoration tragic dramatists. The 
Mourning Bride, in fact, though written in blank 
verse, resumes in many respects the habits of heroic 
drama. It develops themes of love and honour in 
the foreign setting of Granada, and adopts a happy 
1 Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, Hill edition, II, 85. 



128 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

issue for the heroic loves of the Princess Almeria and 
the noble Osmyn. The modern reader might prefer 
either a full tragic solution or an anticipation of the 
denouement by a somewhat lighter handling of 
the earlier tragic elements. The final surprise seems 
rather a let-down than a wind-up. There has been no 
comic relief, and the advent of Osmyn at the end 
comes as a fortuitous trick, not as a logical dramatic 
climax. The plot, complicated by the motives of 
' cross purposes' and 'mistaken identity/ has, apart 
from its artificiality, more coherence and vigour in 
development than is characteristic of Congreve's 
comedies. 

Gosse believes that the blank verse 'is the parent of 
Thomson's,' and that Congreve's real model is Milton. 1 
Apart from such possible bearings on the history of 
poetry, Congreve's verse is of interest chiefly in some 
good, if rather conventional, lines, some of which are 
familiar in quotation. The Prologue sets a higher 
standard than Congreve attained either in comedy or 
in tragedy: 

To please and move has been our poet's theme, 
Art may direct, but nature is his aim ; 
And nature missed, in vain he boasts his art, 
For only nature can affect the heart. 

Congreve is a great literary artist, but without the 
gift that blends art with nature. 

The Dedication of The Mourning Bride had termed 
it a 'poem constituted on a moral whose end is to 
recommend and to encourage virtue.' This high 

1 Congreve, p. 92. 



vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 129 

purpose did not shield Congreve from Collier's de- 
termined attack in the following year, nor did that 
attack deter the dramatist from one further venture in 
comedy. Notwithstanding the fact that The Way of 
the World (1700) contained Congreve's most brilliant 
character creation, it met with a reception so luke- 
warm that the author was somewhat piqued. 'But 
little of it/ he writes in his Dedication, 'was prepared 
for that general taste which seems now to be predomi- 
nant in the palates of our audiences.' Even Steele, 
in his Commendatory Verses, admits that it was 
caviare to the general by asking : 

How could, great author, your aspiring mind 
Dare to write only to the few refined ? 

Congreve's Dedication voices a deliberate intention 
to depict not the gross fools 'which are meant to be 
ridiculed in most of our comedies' but 'some charac- 
ters which should appear ridiculous, not so much 
through a natural folly (which is incorrigible, and 
therefore not proper for the stage) as through an 
affected wit ; a wit, which at the same time that it is 
affected, is also false.' With evident pique at critics 
who failed to note such subtleties, Congreve added 
that 'this play had been acted two or three days, 
before some of these hasty judges could find the leisure 
to distinguish betwixt the character of a Witwoud 
and a Truewit.' In a letter to Dennis, 1 Congreve 
had defined 'humour' as 'A singular and unavoidable 
Manner of doing or saying any thing, peculiar and 

1 10 July, 1695, 'Concerning Humour in Comedy,' The Select Works 
of Mr. John Dennis, 1718, II, 514-525. 

K 



130 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

natural to one Man only ; by which his Speech and 
Actions are distinguished from those of other Men,' 
and had declared that 'Humour is from Nature, 
Habit from Custom, and Affectation from Industry/ 
He had further asserted : ' The saying of humorous 
things does not distinguish Characters ; for every 
Person in a Comedy may be allow' d to speak them. 
From a witty Man they are expected; and even a 
Fool may be permitted to stumble on 'em by chance. 
Tho I make a difference betwixt Wit and Humour ; 
yet I do not think that humorous characters exclude 
Wit : No, but the Manner of Wit, should be adapted 
to the Humour. ' Yet Congreve's own weakness lay 
in his inability to adapt his own wit to the various 
characters he should have differentiated. His 'fools' 
are permitted to stumble on too many brilliants. 
His diamond beds are without sand. Even in The 
Way of the World, Foible, the maid, like Congreve's 
earlier servants, has the wit of her betters. The 
unconscious humour of Goldsmith's Diggory is closer 
to life than the brilliant quips of Congreve's servants. 
It is small wonder that critics overlooked a theoretical 
distinction that seemed without a difference in 
practice. 

Yet if, in Dryden's words, The Way of the World 
'had but moderate success, though it deserves much 
better,' l the judgment of posterity has gone far to 
correct the error. Mihamant, Congreve's most brill- 
iant character creation, has commanded Hazlitt's 
eulogy 2 and George Meredith's tribute to the 'perfect 

1 Letter to Mrs. Steward, 12 March, 1700. Quoted by Ward, III, 
475- 

2 Lectures on the English Comic Writers, Lecture IV, pp. 139-142. 



vin CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 131 

portrait of a coquette.' * They had been anticipated, 
however, by an earlier critic, her lover Mirabel: 'I 
like her with all her faults ; nay, like her for her 
faults. Her follies are so natural, or so artful, that 
they become her; and those affectations which in 
another woman would be odious, serve but to make 
her more agreeable' (I, 2). She enters with a flash, 
and goes off in a blaze of wit. Even amid the cease- 
less pyrotechnics of Congreve her departure seems 
like the extinction of a brilliant rocket. Yet Milla- 
mant is an artificial creation — beautiful and fragile 
as Dresden china. She has the wit, but not the 
humanity, of Shakespeare's Beatrice. 

Congreve's wit is his supreme strength and perhaps 
his greatest weakness. It led him to sacrifice not 
merely naturalness in character and dialogue, but effec- 
tiveness of plot. In his comedies the action usually 
halts while the train of wit passes gaily by. Sheridan, 
with greater dramatic art, showed that brilliant wit 
need not clog the movement of plot, for even the 
scandal scenes which have at times been instanced 
to the contrary have some justification, apart from 
their brilliancy, as a necessary background for Lady 
Teazle. Yet it would be unfair to judge Congreve 
chiefly by his defects. To supreme wit he added 
grace of diction. He has the ease of Addison. He is 
a sort of avant-courier of eighteenth-century felicity 
of phrase and delicacy of diction. Hazlitt's eulogy, if 
somewhat superlative in expression, is sound in es- 
sence : i His style is inimitable, nay perfect. It is 

1 An Essay on Comedy, Constable edition, 1897, p. 35. See also pp. 
39-42. 



132 



ENGLISH DRAMA 



the highest model of comic dialogue. Every sentence 
is replete with sense and satire, conveyed in the most 
polished and pointed terms. Every page presents 
a shower of brilliant conceits, is a tissue of epigrams in 
prose, is a new triumph of wit, a new conquest over 
dulness.' In the record of English comedy Congreve 
holds a foremost place. His early work, especially 
The Old Bachelor, shows the influence, without the 
malignant bitterness, of Wycherley. In comic spirit 
he seems rather the descendant of Etherege and the 
ancestor of Sheridan. With Etherege's weakness in 
plot, he has greater ease of dialogue ; in brilliancy and 
ceaseless wit, he vies with Sheridan. In his hands 
the comedy of society is touched with rare literary 
skill. It is artificial comedy, but the art is masterly. 
If, in a general sense, Congreve is a follower of Ethe- 
rege, Wycherley's successor is Sir John Vanbrugh 
(1664-17 26). After some early architectural training 
in France and experience in the army which culminated 
in his seizure at Calais and imprisonment in the 
Bastille as a suspected spy, Vanbrugh settled down to 
the life of a dramatist and an architect. The combi- 
nation of professions once came near to causing 
personal disaster. From Colley Cibber's account 1 of 
the opening of the Haymarket Theatre, in 1705, it 
appears that Vanbrugh almost wrecked his own play, 
The Confederacy, through the wretched acoustics of the 
theatre in which he had sacrificed too much to spacious- 
ness of dome and splendour of construction. Flemish 
in descent, Vanbrugh had a taste for the massive in 
architecture, to which his mock epitaph bore witness : 
1 Apology, Lowe edition, I, 319 ff. 



vin CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 133 

Lie heavy on him, Earth! for he 
Laid many heavy loads on thee ! * 

In character painting, too, he shows at times a 
certain Flemish heaviness, a following of the ' fleshly 
school' of Rubens. Whether Swift was right in 
satirizing some of Vanbrugh's efforts in architecture, 
or Sir Joshua Reynolds was justified in praising the 
picturesque effect of Blenheim, which Vanbrugh 
built for the Duke of Marlborough, is, from the 
present standpoint, of less moment than the fact that 
his prominence as an architect enforced his notoriety 
as a dramatist. 

Vanbrugh's dramatic fame rests chiefly upon three 
comedies — his first, The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger 
(Dec. 1696), The Provok'd Wife (1697), and The Con- 
federacy (1705). Of his minor pieces, Msop (1697) 
is a free translation of a French comedy by Boursault, 
The Pilgrim (1700), an adaptation from Fletcher, 
The False Friend (1702), from Le Sage's version of a 
Spanish comedy, The Country House (1705), from 
one of Dancourt's farces, and The Mistake (1705), 
from Moliere's Le Depit Amour eux. A Journey to 
London is an unfinished comedy, completed by 
Colley Cibber as The Provoked Husband. The chief 
interest of most of these minor pieces lies in the illus- 
tration of Vanbrugh's variety of materials. 

The success of Colley Cibber's uninspired, but well- 
constructed and well-acted, comedy, Love's Last 
Shift, or The Fool in Fashion, suggested a sequel. 
Written in six weeks, The Relapse was presented to 

1 On Sir J. Vanbrugh ; an epigrammatical epitaph [by Dr. Evans]. 
In John Nichols's Select Collection of Poems, 1780-82, III, 161. 



134 



ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 



the Drury Lane management in April, 1696, and 
produced in December. Va nbrugh took thre &xha^ae- 
ters fro m Cibber — Loveless, t he libertine, Am anda, 
the virtu^uTlpousef^ano! SiF~Novelty Fashion, who 
becomes Lord Foppington. Cibber, the first Sir 
Novelty Fashion, and the actors who had appeared 
as Loveless and Amanda, continued their original 
successes in Vanbrugh's sequel. \ The comparison 
between Cibber and Vanbrugh centres in the figures 
of Sir Novelty Fashion and Lord Foppington. From 
Cibber, Vanbrugh has taken the general idea of the 
fop and some specific touches. In Cibber, Sir Novelty 
is described as 'one that Heaven intended for a Man ; 
but the whole business of his Life is, to make the World 
believe, he is of another Species ' (Act I) . Cibber's 
character amuses for the moment; Vanbrugh's has 
permanent vitality. Hazlitt, 1 who regards Lord Fop- 
pington as a 'copy from Etherege's Sir Fopling 
Flutter,' thinks that 'perhaps, Sir Fopling is the more 
natural grotesque of the two,' but he does not fail to 
regard Lord Foppington as 'a most splendid carica- 
ture.' Dr. Ward 2 remarks, ' Lord Foppington I am 
inclined to pronounce the best fop ever brought on the 
stage — unsurpassed and unsurpassable, and admirable 
from first to last.' 

In The Relapse virtue, in the person of Amanda, 
triumphs. Yet, as the sub-title of the play implies, 
virtue is very much in danger. Furthermore, though 
Amanda resists temptation, Loveless prosecutes his 
intrigue with Berinthia to its relentless end. Com- 

1 Lectures on the English Comic Writers, pp. 157-158. 

2 Ward, III, 479. 



vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 135 

pared with Wycherley, Vanbrugh's immorality seems 
less black, because it is gayer and less cynical. He 
seems, for the most part, to have the buoyancy of ani- 
mal spirits rather than the brutality of animal passions. 
Yet in The Provok'd Wife, Sir John Brute does not 
belie his name. He is of the beef-and-beer school, an 
alehouse brawler, with a bully's cowardice. Like 
Sir Tunbelly Clumsey in The Relapse, he shows Van- 
brugh's heavy Flemish touch. Constant and Heart- 
free are the usual pair of friends, Rasor and Mademoi- 
selle the clever valet and maid. Lady Brute and 
Belinda are the confidantes. Yet these are not life- 
less reproductions of stock characters, but vitalized 
individuals. The Confederacy, largely taken from 
Dancourt's Les Bourgeoises a la Mode, shows much 
skill in plot construction. The way in which the 
plot is made to turn on the possession of a necklace 
recalls somewhat Goldsmith's later handling of Miss 
Neville's jewels in She Stoops to Conquer. Despite 
marked obligations to its French original, Vanbrugh's 
play has individuality. Dick Amlet and his mother 
and Brass are vigorous character creations. 

Unlike Etherege and Congreve, Vanbrugh excels 
in dramatic construction. The Relapse is doubtless 
too long, and Sheridan, who revised the play under 
the title of A Trip to Scarborough, though he sacrificed 
some of the pristine vigour of his original, improved 
the plot by considerable cuts and some rearrange- 
ment, especially in the last part. But, for the most 
part,[Vanbrugh's plots, like Wycherley's, though often 
borrowed, are skilfully built, easily followed, and pro- 
ductive of excellent stage situations.) The effective- 



136 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ness of plot is enhanced by distinctness of character 
drawing. Sometimes, indeed, he outlines his sketches 
so heavily that they approach caricature, as in Lady 
Fancyful, the female fop in The ProvoWd Wife. 
His portrait of Lord Foppington merits the place of 
honour, yet many of Vanbrugh's other pictures deserve 
to be hung on the line. Young Fashion, the gallant, 
Sir Tunbelly Clumsey, the country gentleman, Flip- 
panta, the soubrette maid, Miss Hoyden, the romp- 
ing ingenue, Amanda, the virtuous wife, Berinthia, 
the reckless widow, Sir John Brute, the sottish squire, 
Rasor, the clever valet — these, and others, show 
Vanbrugh's power of touching the stock characters 
of the comedy of his day with vigour and vitality. 

Without the epigrammatic skill of Congreve, Van^l 
brugh has admirable ease and fluency of style. Colley 
Cibber, who acted several of the strongest parts, con- 
firms by his own testimony what he records as the gen- 
eral observation of 'all the Actors of my Time, that 
the Style of no Author whatsoever gave their Memory 
less trouble than that of Sir John Vanbrugh' and that 
'his Wit and Humour was so little laboured, that his 
most entertaining Scenes seem'd to be no more than 
his common Conversation committed to Paper.' * 
In his best work, well-rounded strength in plot, char- 
acter, and dialogue, deservedly won signal success in 
comedy. 

George Farquhar (1678-1707) brought to English 
comedy an endowment of native Irish wit, good- 
humour, and originality. Of Londonderry birth, a 
sizar at Trinity College, Dublin, and then an actor on 
1 Apology, Lowe edition, I, 219. 



vin CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 137 

the Dublin stage, he was brought by Wilks to Lon- 
don. His first play, Love and a Bottle, appeared when 
he was perhaps twenty. 1 A commission in the army 
and a visit to Holland with his regiment gave him 
military experience on which he drew in his later 
comedies. It was Farquhar who discovered the six- 
teen-year-old niece' of the hostess of the Mitre 
Tavern reading behind the bar one of Beaumont and 
Fletcher's plays, interested Vanbrugh in her, and 
through him brought to Christopher Rich the actress 
who was to become famous as Nance Oldfield. Far- 
quhar's second play, The Constant Couple, or A Trip 
to the Jubilee (1699), was a highly successful comedy. 
Its hero lent his name to a sequel, Sir Harry Wildair 
(1701), which increased the popularity of Farquhar 's 
dramatic portrait of a gentleman ' newly come from 
Paris,' endowed with 'gaiety of humour.' 2 The In- 
constant, or The Way to Win Him (1702) was taken 
from Fletcher's The Wild Goose Chase. The Twin- 
Rivals (1702) contains a humpback villain and a 
rather amusing Irish servant, Teague. The Recruit- 
ing Officer (1706), animated by Farquhar's own mili- 
tary experience, enlarges the bounds of comedy that 
had hitherto been too closely confined to city limits 
and the gallantries of its fops. The vigorous charac- 
ters of Sergeant Kite and Captain Plume have the 
rough freedom of a country atmosphere. 

The Beaux' Stratagem (1707) shows both the tradi- 
tions of Restoration comedy and the advent of new 

1 Genest dates it 1699, but the first edition, dated 1699, actually 
appeared in December, 1698. 

2 The Constant Couple, I, 1. 



138 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

tendencies. Here are present in full force the familiar 
flings of the beau monde at the country, and yet 
something of real country atmosphere ; French char- 
acters and phrases, 1 and yet a hearty English element ; 
much of the immorality of earlier comedy, with some 
of the later improvement in moral tone. Though 
Squire and Mrs. Sullen separate at the end with scant 
regard for the marriage tie, Farquhar does not scoff 
at virtue and exalt vice in Wycherley's fashion. The 
seeming intrigue between Mrs. Sullen and Count 
Bellair is only her scheme to solve her matrimonial 
troubles. Instead of trying to deceive her husband, 
she has him brought to her rendezvous with the 
Count. As the Count says, when Mrs. Sullen shows 
him that she has not taken his advances seriously : 
'Begar, madam, your virtue be vera great, but gar- 
zoon, your honeste be vera little ' (III, 3). 

The dialogue is bright, witty, and vigorous. Mrs. 
Sullen, who epitomizes her husband as 'a, sullen, silent 
sot' breaks out with these words: ' Since a woman 
must wear chains, I would have the pleasure of hearing 
'em rattle a little' (II, 1). Archer and Cherry have 
some excellent passages. 2 Though Mrs. Sullen's long 
speeches (II, 1) voice the usual contempt of the town 
for the country, the play has genuine country atmos- 
phere. The countrywoman who comes to Lady 
Bountiful to have her husband's leg cured is given, 
in fact, some dialectic forms of speech — ' mail ' for 
'mile,' and 'graips' for ' gripes ' (IV, 1). Scenes with 

1 Besides Count Bellair, there is Foigard, an Irishman who tries 
to make his speech pass for French. 

2 End of I, 1, and of II, 3, with Archer's catechism of love. 



vm CONGREVE, VANBRUGH, AND FARQUHAR 139 

the landlord, the tavern maid, and the highwaymen 
come as a relief from the ceaseless intrigues of fash- 
ionable London. 

The plot construction is highly ingenious, especially 
in the very effective last act. Archer — whose name 
is sufficiently explained by Boniface's words (II, 3), 
' You're very arch ' — justifies his name by replacing 
the French Count at the rendezvous, and obtains 
entrance to Mrs. Sullen's chamber. This leads to a 
situation familiar in Restoration comedy in such 
scenes as Vanbrugh's, where Loveless carries off 
Berinthia {The Relapse, IV, 3), and Farquhar's own 
scene in his Love and a Bottle, where Roebuck invades 
Lucinda's chamber. But the ingenuity with which 
a stock situation is rescued from the relentless issue 
in Vanbrugh is Farquhar's own. The attempted 
robbery not merely interrupts the amour at the critical 
point, but offers an effective chance for Archer to dis- 
play his bravery and to merit Mrs. Sullen's regard. 
Mrs. Sullen herself well describes him: 'The devil's 
in this fellow ! he fights, loves, and banters, all in a 
breath' (V, 4). The next scene is full of rapid 
movement of plot and shift of situation. The whole 
act, handled with vigorous assurance, is of sustained 
interest. 

Farquhar is to some extent a forerunner of Gold- 
smith. The opening conversation between Boniface, 
the innkeeper, and Aimwell and Archer about the 
menu is quite like that of Mr. Hardcastle, the sup- 
posed innkeeper, with Marlow and Hastings in She 
Stoops to Conquer. There is something, too, in the 
freshness of atmosphere, in the group of country and 



140 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, vni 

inn folk, and in the Irish good-humour, which is akin 
to the spirit of Goldsmith. Whatever Farquhar's 
lapses in point of morality, he has none of Wycherley's 
vindictive and brutal cynicism. Most of his char- 
acters, with all their faults, are companionable. They 
are not so clever as Congreve's, but fertile brains and 
facile manners make them attractive, despite some 
heartless traits. 

While Wycherley adapted Moliere and Vanbrugh 
followed a variety of models, Farquhar's ready brain 
was responsible for most of his effectiveness in plot 
and characters. Farquhar usually suggests to others. 
Highwaymen in league witn the landlord may be as 
old as the First Part of Henry IV, but both Goldsmith's 
She Stoops to Conquer and Gay's Beggar's Opera may 
have found a nearer model in The Beaux 1 Stratagem. 
Farquhar imparts to his characters individuality. 
He presents a whole gallery of full-length portraits — 
the country squire, the Irish adventurer, the fop, the 
landlord, the tavern maid, the recruiting officer. He 
sets them in scenes vivid in their portrayal of eigh- 
teenth-century life. The inn, the country house, the 
gatherings of soldiers and highwaymen, enlarge a 
canvas which has usually represented only the fashion- 
able world of courtier and intriguante. Effective in 
plot, varied in scenes and characters, Farquhar's 
last and best comedy brings Restoration comedy to 
a brilliant close, and points to the healthier humour of 
Goldsmith. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE MORAL REAWAKENING 

With Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar, Restora- 
tion comedy draws towards its end. Its brilliant 
dramas continued to hold the boards for many years, 
and powerfully influenced eighteenth- century drama. 
Yet even Sheridan, on whom descended Congreve's 
mantle of wit, did not reproduce the traditional li- 
cense of Restoration comedy. The awakening forces 
of moral reform to which Jeremy Collier gave their 
most decisive expression were steadily in the ascend- 
ant. Against them battled vainly the defenders of 
a lost cause. Neither the ridicule nor the serious 
arguments desperately essayed by opponents, nor 
even Collier's own absurdities, could avail against 
the solid strength of his main contention. Collier 
himself was less the prophet of an unrealized evil than 
a voice through which revolt against the immorality 
of the stage became fully articulate. Other voices 
had already been raised in partial protest. Evelyn's 
Diary expressed at times his regret at the license of 
drama, and even Pepys had not always been tolerant 
of the evils of the theatre of his day. James Wright's 
Country Conversations (1694) anticipated Collier in 
resenting the abuse of the clergy at the hands of dram- 
atists, and suggested that \ now most of our New 
Comedies are become very Pictures of Immorality,' 

141 



I 4 2 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

and Sir Richard Blackmore's Preface to Prince Arthur 
(1695) declared that 'The Poets that write for the 
stage (at least a great part of 'em) seem deeply con- 
cern' d ' in a conspiracy to ' bring Vice and Corruption 
of Manners into Esteem and Reputation.' Collier's 
main attack was thus prefaced by various skirmishes. 
His success was due not to strategy, but to an im- 
pregnable position. 

It is important to examine, in some detail, the real 
content of A Short View of the Immorality, and Pro- 
faneness of the English Stage (1698). Vagaries of 
individual criticisms blend curiously with sound 
general truths. Collier has much of the Puritan in- 
tolerance of William Prynne's Histrio-M astix and 
much of the inartistic obtuseness of Thomas Rymer's 
Short View of Tragedy. The first chapter, 'The Im- 
modesty of the Stage,' an attack upon indecency of 
language, justly declares that 'The Present English 
Stage is superlatively Scandalous. It exceeds the 
Liberties of all Times and Countries.' 1 Yet Collier, 
who finds some excuse for Aristophanes and for 
Fletcher, laments that Shakespeare keeps Ophelia alive 
'only to sully her Reputation.' The second chapter, 
on 'The Profa[ne]ness of the Stage,' enters a sensible 
objection to swearing as 'an ungentlemanly, as well as 
an unchristian Practice,' but finds it 'a heavy Piece 
of Profaness' to call Jehu a 'Hackney Coachman.' 2 
In the third chapter, 'The Clergy abused by the 
Stage,' Collier shifts from the moral to the social 
standpoint, in deprecating the representation on the 



1 1698 edition, p. 54. 
2 Ibid., p. 64. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 143 

stage of the priesthood, on the ground that this de- 
grades 'the profession of a Gentleman.' 1 The title 
of the fourth chapter shows that Collier could not 
readily go astray in seeking arguments from con- 
temporary drama: 'The Stage-Poets make their 
Principal Persons Vitious, and reward them at the 
End of the Play.'f Chapter five singles out certain 
plays for attack, notably Vanbrugh's Relapse. At 
one moment, Collier justly upbraids Vanbrugh for 
permitting Berinthia to go off 'without Censure or 
Disadvantage,' but, in the next, cites as proof of her 
profanity a bit of persiflage about lovers' oaths which 
shows that Collier was not the man to laugh at lovers' 
perjuries. 2 The final chapter, 'The Opinion of 
Paganism, of the Church, and State, concerning the 
Stage,' carries the discussion far afield. Heathen 
philosophers, orators, and historians, the constitu- 
tions of Athens, Sparta, and Rome, and the edicts 
of church councils, are marshalled into an attack not 
upon the abuses of the drama, his original target, but 
upon the stage itself. For a time he bids fair to chal- 
lenge comparison even with the inimitable prolixity 
and absurdity of Prynne's Histrio-Mastix. In the 
end, however, he returns to the more definite charge 
that the stage ' cherishes those Passions, and rewards 
those Vices, which 'tis the business of Reason to dis- 
countenance.' 3 

From even these illustrations it will be apparent 
that Collier's strength lay more in the justice of his 

1 Ibid., p. 136. 

2 Ibid., pp. 219-220. 

3 Ibid., p. 287. 



144 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

cause than in sustained logic of argument. Had the 
basic truth of his general contention been open to 
question, he might easily have defeated his own ends. 
He often failed to distinguish between immorality 
and harmless jest, between moral and artistic issues. 
He poured censure alike on plays that rewarded vice 
and on those that violated the dramatic unities. He 
sought examples not even remotely connected with the 
real question, and did not hesitate to alter the ques- 
tion itself. Yet if he often fought as one that beat- 
eth the air, many of his blows landed with deadly 
strength. His pamphlet has at times zest and vivacity 
as well as blunt force. His work should be judged 
not merely by its flagrant eccentricities but by its 
underlying elements of strength. 

So obvious are the immediate responses to his in- 
vective that Collier has at times been credited with 
originating rather than expressing a new moral stand- 
ard. At all events, he remained the central figure in 
the war of pamphlets which prolonged for more than 
a quarter of a century. Charles Gildon, Edward 
Filmer, John Dennis, Vanbrugh, and Congreve. 1 all 
took up the cudgels in behalf of the stage within some 
four months from the publication of Collier's attack. 
Gildon, Filmer, and Dennis did not fail to admit 
in many respects the justice of his strictures, but took 
issue with his extreme arguments. Yet even Dennis, 
who had the candour to admit that c No man can make 
any reasonable defence, either for the immorality 
or the immodesty, or the unnecessary wanton pro- 

1 For titles and discussion of these pamphlets and those cited below, 
see Gosse's Congreve, pp. 1 12-129. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 145 

phaneness which are too justly charg'd upon ' 1 contem- 
porary drama, is partisan enough to defend Wych- 
erley. Vanbrugh was able to pierce cleverly a few 
weak points in Collier's armour, but was far from 
finding a vital spot. Congreve for once found wit 
failing him, and anger a sorry substitute for argu- 
ment. His reckless attempt to show that Collier's 
citations were proof of the critic's impurity fell flat, 
and Congreve soon learned that Vanbrugh had been 
right in admitting that the Short View was 'now a 
thing no farther to be laught at.' 2 

Collier was not left to fight his battle single-handed. 
Early in September, two minor pamphlets took issue 
with Congreve's Amendments, and, not long after, 
The Stage Condemned brought him the doubtful aid 
of its dull prolixity. But Collier was not content to 
rest his case on his first main indictment. Jn Novem- 
ber appeared A Defence of the Short View, in which 
he dealt chiefly with Congreve and Vanbrugh. Other 
later treatises added bulk, rather than weight, to the 
controversy. Collier's answers to specific details of 
controversy seem to-day to detract somewhat from 
the concentrated force of his first invective. Still, 
his provocation was strong, and the severity of his 
personalities was fully matched by his opponents. 
Yet Dryden, despite flashes of very human resentment 
at Collier's extreme charges, 3 bowed to the justice of 
the main indictment. 4 While the tide of controversy 

1 The Usefulness of the Stage, 1698, Introduction. 

2 Vanbrugh, A Short Vindication of the Relapse and the Provok'd 
Wife, 1698, p. 4. 

3 See beginning of Cymon and Iphigenia. 

4 Preface to the Fables (1700), Essays, Ker, II, 272. 

L 



146 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

still raged fiercely, he uttered what sounds more like 
the verdict of an impartial judge than the plea of the 
defendant : 

Perhaps the parson stretched a point too far, 
When with our theatres he waged a war. 
He tells you, that this very moral age 
Received the first infection from the stage ; 
But sure, a banished court, with lewdness fraught, 
The seeds of open vice, returning, brought. 1 

Congreve and Vanbrugh had reaped the whirlwind 
which had been sown in the court of the Merry 
Monarch. 

The extent of Collier's influence upon the tone of 
English drama has been variously estimated. Not 
infrequently the question has been dismissed with 
positive assertion rather than with positive proof. 
Macaulay evidently assumed that Collier was prac- 
tically responsible for the reform of the English stage. 
Recently, there has been a reaction, sometimes almost 
amounting to violence, against this once popular 
assumption. In its most aggressive form, modern 
criticism has sometimes gone so far as to deny Collier 
any influence upon contemporary drama and to dis- 
miss his attack as a complete failure. This is to swing 
the pendulum to the other extreme. Enough has 
been said already to suggest the danger of assigning 
to Collier results of forces too far-reaching to be at- 
tributed to an individual. Yet distaste for what is 
intolerant and extravagant in Collier should not pro- 
voke a like intolerance in the critic. The course of 

1 Epilogue to The Pilgrim (1700), Scott-Saintsbury edition of 
Dryden, VIII, 502. 









ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 147 

drama was not immediately and violently turned into 
a purer channel. Despite Collier's strictures, Far- 
quhar and Vanbrugh, in his later plays, maintain the 
license of Restoration comedy, and the looseness of 
earlier Restoration comedies did not prevent their 
retention on the stage. Yet, if the superficial aspect 
of drama was not largely altered, there were indubi- 
table signs of reaction against the immorality of the 
stage. The attitude of the law and government is 
significant. In an excellent summary, supported by 
definite proofs, Dr. Ward says: 1 'The censorship 
of the Master of the Revels began to be exercised more 
strictly ; actors were prosecuted for the use of profane 
language, and the playhouses were once more pre- 
sented as nuisances by the grand-jury ; the admission 
of women wearing masks into any of the theatres was 
prohibited ; and Convocation occupied itself with the 
condition of the stage as a matter of moment to be 
pressed upon the consideration of the Crown.' The 
slow, but perceptible, influence upon the character 
of the dramatic output becomes more apparent with 
rising dramatists like Colley Cibber and Richard 
Steele. The effect of the pamphlet controversy over 
the morals of the theatre continued for almost a gen- 
eration until William Law's treatise, The Absolute 
Unlawfulness of the Stage-Entertainment fully demon- 
strated (1726). Collier's attack upon the stage may 
not, indeed, claim absolute priority in the dispute, but 
it focussed the discussion. It became the centre of 
attack and the rallying-point of defence. It would 
be idle to exaggerate to heroic proportions the medi- 
1 III, 514-515- 



148 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ocre figure of Jeremy Collier, but it would be unfair 
to deny him in the controversy of his day a prominence 
which his very opponents recognized. 

The death of Dryden and the withdrawal of Con- 
greve from dramatic work accentuate the passing of 
the old order. Whether the comparative failure of 
The Way of the World, or an uneasy sense of Collier's 
superiority in their controversy, or simply Congreve's 
fondness for the social life which the emoluments of 
office now permitted him to enjoy, was the dominant 
factor in the case, Congreve 'left the stage early.' 
And though the generous words of Dennis, that 
'Comedy has quitted it with him,' l have the exag- 
geration of compliment, they suggest a truth. Even 
Farquhar, whose later work, with that of Vanbrugh, 
disproves the literal accuracy of the phrase, bore 
striking testimony to the significance of Collier's 
attack. His Preface to The Twin-Rivals (printed 1703) 
begins as follows : i The success and countenance that 
debauchery has met with in plays, was the most severe 
and reasonable charge against their authors in Mr. 
Collier's Short View; and indeed this gentleman had 
done the drama considerable service, had he arraigned 
the stage only to punish its misdemeanours, and not 
to take away its life; but there is an advantage to 
be made sometimes of the advice of an enemy, and the 
only way to disappoint his designs, is to improve upon 
his invective, and to make the stage flourish, by virtue 
of that satire by which he thought to suppress it.' 
Farquhar's play, however, by no means puts virtuous 

1 The Poetical Register: or, the Lives and Characters of the Eng- 
lish Dramatick Poets [by Giles Jacob], 1719, p. 46. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 149 

theory into practice. It was not through the reform 
of dramatists of the old school, but through the ad- 
vent of new playwrights that comedy was to be 
purged of gross license. 

Two years before Jeremy Collier's invective, ap- 
peared the first play of Colley Cibber (16 71-175 7). 
Conspicuous in his own day as actor, manager of 
Drury Lane, playwright, and finally poet-laureate, 
Cibber fives to-day chiefly as the author of An Apology 
for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber . . . Written by Him- 
self, an entertaining record not merely of his own life 
but of the whole dramatic history of his times. In 
writing comedy Cibber avowed a deliberate moral 
intention. In comparing his first comedy, Love's 
Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion (1696), with Van- 
brugh's famous sequel, Cibber later wrote : 1 ' The 
Relapse, however imperfect in the Conduct, by the 
mere Force of its agreeable Wit, ran away with the 
Hearts of its Hearers ; while Love's last Shift, which 
(as Mr. Congreve justly said of it) had only in it a 
great many things that were like Wit, that in reality 
were not Wit : And what is still less pardonable (as 
I say of it myself) has a great deal of Puerility and 
frothy Stage-Language in it, yet by the mere moral 
Delight received from its Fable, it has been, with the 
other, in a continued and equal Possession of the Stage 
for more than forty Years.' Despite its 'moral de- 
light,' the play did not escape the censure of Jeremy 
Collier, though Cibber protests 2 that 'his greatest 
Charge against it is, that it sometimes uses the word 

1 Apology, Lowe edition, I, 220. 

2 Ibid., I, 274. 



150 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Faith! as an Oath, in the Dialogue/ Modern taste 
might find a stronger objection to the ease with which a 
faithless husband, after eight years' quest of pleasure, 
is permitted to reclaim a faithful wife. Yet difference 
in moral standards rather than insincerity on Cibber's 
part may fairly account for apparent ethical short- 
comings. 

Cibber's alteration of Richard III gave to the stage 
a famous acting version, for more than a century the 
accepted stage text. Some minor comedies, one of 
which was drawn partly from Fletcher and another 
from a Spanish source, 1 were followed by Cibber's 
most conspicuous success in comedy. In The Careless 
Husband (1704) he seeks definitely to moralize comedy. 
Yet Cibber's play is rather an expurgated Restoration 
comedy than a new comedy type. The plot is two- 
fold. Sir Charles Easy, the ' Careless Husband,' 
engages in amours with Lady Grave-Airs and Edging, 
his wife's maid. Lord Morelove, coquettishly allured 
and repulsed by Lady Betty Modish, pretends affec- 
tion to Lady Grave-Airs, while Lady Betty flirts 
with Lord Foppington. The seven characters are 
familiar comic types. Lady Betty Modish is the 
coquette of the school of Congreve's Millamant. 
Lady Grave- Airs is the cast-off mistress, like Con- 
greve's Belinda, in The Way of the World. In Lord 
Foppington, Cibber reclaims the fop that Vanbrugh 
had taken from Cibber's Sir Novelty Fashion. All 
these fops are of the school of Etherege's Sir Fop- 
ling Flutter and Crowne's Sir Courtly Nice. Yet 
Cibber's Lord Foppington is no mere echo. Lady 

1 Ward, III, 486. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 151 

Easy is the one character who is represented as 
ethically admirable. In the scene where Lady Easy 
finds her husband and the maid asleep in chairs, 
founded according to Boswell : on fact, Lady Easy's 
ascent from prose to blank verse in apostrophizing 
her sleeping husband is striking. But when, anxious 
like a good wife lest he catch cold 'bare-headed and 
in so sound a sleep,' she determines to intercept the 
wrath of 'Heav'n offended' and 'takes her Steinkirk 
from her Neck, and lays it gently over his Head, ' she 
relapses, appropriately to the anti-climax, into prose. 
Steele's earlier introduction of blank verse in plays 
like The Funeral (1701) and The Lying Lover (1703) 
points to an attempt to invest the serious passages of 
moralized comedy with the traditional dignity of 
verse. 

The Lady's Last Stake, or The Wife's Resentment 
(1707) inculcates the same moral as The Careless 
Husband — that love, not jealousy, binds the wife to 
the husband's heart. Of The Non-Juror (1717), an 
adaptation of Moliere's Tartuffe to English setting, 
Cibber wrote: 2 'I borrow' d the Tartuffe of Moliere 
and turn'd him into a modern Nonjuror: Upon the 
Hypocrisy of the French character I ingrafted a 
stronger Wickedness, that of an English Popish Priest 
lurking under the Doctrine of our own Church to raise 
his Fortune upon the Ruin of a worthy Gentleman, 
whom his dissembled Sanctity had seduc'd into the 
treasonable Cause of a Roman Catholick Out-law.' 
The Non-Juror contains some well-drawn characters, 

1 Life of Johnson, Hill edition, I, 174, footnote 2. 

2 Apology, II, 186. 



152 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

and its bold strokes of caricature are retouched 
in Isaac Bickerstaff's The Hypocrite (1768), but 
Cibber's attempt to blend politics with morals is a 
dubious procedure. The Provoked Husband (172&), 
a completion of Vanbrugh's unfinished comedy, A 
Journey to London, encountered, according to Cibber, 1 
the resentment which people had not dared to show 
openly to the political tone of The Non-Juror. 

In another connection, there will be good reason to 
discuss Cibber's resolute championship of ' legitimate 
drama ' against the encroachments of pantomime and 
spectacle. Here, it is of primary importance to centre 
attention on his conscious moral aim. The Dedica- 
tion of The Careless Husband shows an evident wish 
to reform contemporary comedy; the Prologue de- 
clares the intention not to deal with the grossness of 
'the Vile Scum' of humanity who ' deserve not Satyrs 
but the Hangman's Lash,' but to hit 'some weak Part, 
where Folly's found.' Judged by modern standards, 
Cibber permits even gross folly and sin to be re- 
deemed with ready indulgence. Yet, if Lady Easy 
does not belie her name in viewing her careless hus- 
band's errors, her position is treated not with ridicule, 
but with sympathy. If Cibber welcomes the home- 
coming of his prodigals with an easy forge tfulness of 
their lapses from virtue, he seeks to lay chief empha- 
sis on the pure affection and constancy of their wives. 
Nor are his prodigals libertines 'as sensual as the 
brutish sting.' They are more akin to Tom Jones 
than to Wycherley's Horner. There is no reason to 
question Cibber's sincerity when, from the vantage- 
1 Apology , II, 189-190. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 153 

point of his later years, he reviewed his attitude 
toward the drama : 1 1 It has often given me Amazement 
that our best Authors of that time could think the Wit 
and Spirit of their Scenes could be an Excuse for 
making the Looseness of them publick. The many- 
Instances of their Talents so abused are too glaring 
to need a closer Comment, and are sometimes too 
gross to be recited. If then to have avoided this 
Imputation, or rather to have had the Interest and 
Honour of Virtue always in view, can give Merit to a 
Play, I am contented that my Readers should think 
such Merit the All that mine have to boast of — Liber- 
tines of meer Wit and Pleasure may laugh at these 
grave Laws that would limit a lively Genius : But 
every sensible honest Man, conscious of their Truth 
and Use, will give these RaUiers Smile for Smile, and 
shew a due Contempt for their Merriment.' 

Convenient illustration of the failure of much of the 
drama of the time to respond to suggestions for its 
moral betterment may be found in the work of Mrs. 
Centlivre (1667 ?-i723). Her comedies emphasize 
the fact that neither the preaching of Collier nor the 
practice of Cibber is indication of more than a general 
turn of the tide. For some two decades after Collier's 
attack, Mrs. Centlivre continued to write down to the 
level of vulgarity. Her first play, a blank-verse 
tragedy with some comic admixture, and a later trag- 
edy with a happy solution are not wholly aloof from 
the comic vein which she chiefly worked. Aptitude 
for effective play construction and a certain ease of 
dialogue gave her best comedies theatrical life, if not 
1 Ibid., 1, 266. 



154 ENGLISH DRAMA . chap. 

dramatic vitality. Though most of her characters, 
like Sir William Mode, in The Beau's Duel, or A Sol- 
dier for the Ladies (1702), are familiar comic types, 
Mrs. Centlivre occasionally chanced upon more in- 
dividual characters. Conspicuous among these are 
Marplot in The Busie-Body (1709), and its sequel 
(17 10), later known as Marplot in Lisbon, and Don 
Felix in The Wonder 1 A Woman Keeps a Secret 
(17 14), one of Garrick's most successful roles. Mrs. 
Centlivre 's dramatic activities, which extended over 
more than a score of years, concluded with a popular 
comedy, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718), and The 
Artifice (1722), which suggests the pervasive influence 
of sentimental drama. She had no hesitation in 
acknowledging indebtedness for material to Moliere 
and to Spanish sources in some of her work, but she 
is not without skill in adapting materials to her own 
purpose and not without cleverness in infusing new 
elements. Her characters, though habitually super- 
ficial and conventional, sometimes found genuine 
favour on the stage. With little of the vigour and indi- 
viduality which have preserved distinction for the 
greater Restoration dramatists, Mrs. Centlivre 
adopted but too readily their looseness. With small 
compunction, she sacrificed on the altar of expedi- 
ency. 

If the plays of Colley Cibber mark the transition 
toward healthier moral standards, the new move- 
ment in eighteenth-century drama is fairly inaugu- 
rated in the work of Richard Steele (1672-1729). 
To the conscious moral aim of Cibber, Steele added 
literary art and genius. Unfortunately, that genius 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 155 

did not lie naturally in drama. Like Addison, his 
humour was less for the footlights than for the quiet 
nooks of the coffee-houses. Though at first he 
broadened his humour to the coarser gauge of the play- 
house, his later dramas shrank usually from such ex- 
pedients. Like Cibber, Steele resolutely turned his 
back on the licentious, but the finer grain of his nature 
seems to have exacted for the most, part a higher 
standard than that which satisfied Cibber. Since 
Steele lacked the vis comica and demonstrative wit 
needed for sustaining comedy without other aids, 
he sought for it a new prop. This he found in senti- 
ment. 

Steele was, in a sense, the founder of sentimental 
comedy. Yet it must not be thought that the field 
of which he took possession had lain hitherto wholly 
undiscovered. Perhaps the real origin of sentimental 
comedy should be sought not simply in the moralized 
comedy of Cibber but in the somewhat sentimental- 
ized tragedy of Otway and Southerne. The rising V 
tide of sentiment invaded the entire drama. Its ap- 
peal to pity touched a fundamentally tragic emotion. 
Its conscious moral aim was essentially serious. To y 
regard sentimental comedy as a separate stream, 
whose ultimate source is Steele, is to disregard earlier 
and broader aspects of dramatic history. Further- 
more, the eighteenth-century current of sentiment 
was not confined to drama. Later, it caught up and 
swept along novelists like Richardson and Sterne. 
Nor was it confined to English shores. Back and forth 
across the Channel swept its currents and counter- 
currents. English sentimental comedy from Steele 



156 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

to Hugh Kelly and Richard Cumberland is but one 
channel of the great stream of sentiment which sought 
an outlet by many mouths of a vast delta. 

Before turning to the drama, Steele published, in 
1 701, a religious tract, entitled The Christian Hero, 
which brought him the reputation among his com- 
rades of being 'a disagreeable Fellow.' He then 
deemed it ' incumbent upon him to enliven his Charac- 
ter, for which Reason he writ the Comedy called The 
Funeral, in which (tho' full of Incidents that move 
Laughter) Virtue and Vice appear just as they ought 
to do.' l The Preface to The Funeral (1701) declares 
that ' the innocence of it moved ' the Duke of Devon- 
shire 'to the humanity of expressing himself in its 
favour.' Yet Steele did not deny himself keen satire 
and humour so broad that it sometimes verges on farce. 
'The subject of the drama 'tis hoped will be acceptable 
to all lovers of mankind,' says his Preface, 'since 
ridicule is partly levelled at a set of people who live in 
impatient hopes to see us out of the world, a flock 
of ravens that attend this numerous city for their 
carcases.' In the opening scene Mr. Sable, an under- 
taker, has trained his flock of ravens so effectively that 
a gravedigger, unable to secure easily the ring from a 
dead man's hand, has 'brought the finger and all,' 
and Sable himself announces that ' our friend . . . Dr. 
Passeport, with the powder, has promised me six 
or seven funerals this week.' There is rough humour 
in the scene (IV, 3) where Lord Hardy reviews a regi- 
ment as ragged as Falstaff's, and Kate Matchlock re- 
counts matrimonial vicissitudes which surpass those of 

1 Mr. Steele's Apology for Himself and his Writings, 1714, p. 80. 



DC THE MORAL REAWAKENING 157 

the Wife of Bath. There is the extravagance of farce, 
too, in the scene (V, 3) where the widow who asks, 
'Do you think there are really people sorry for their 
husbands ? ' apostrophizes her dead squirrel in blank 
verse of dubious rhythm, while Tattleaid weeps 
sympathetically, and then laughs at her sallies of wit, 
in imminent danger of swallowing a mouthful of pins. 
Yet, if insincerity in grief is painted in high colours, 
there are not wanting portraits of virtue in Lady 
Harriot and Mr. Trusty, the honest steward. 1 Fur- 
thermore, the play bears evidence of the vein of moral 
sentiment which Steele later developed more definitely. 
Mr. Campley, whose ardent phrases of passion for 
Lady Harriot Steele himself censured in The Specta- 
tor (No. 51), is reproved by Lord Hardy, who expects 
his 'felicity from Lady Sharlot, in her friendship, her 
constancy, her piety, her household cares, her maternal 
tenderness' (II, 1). When the lovers are united at 
the end, the apparition of Lady Sharlot from a coffin 
startles Lord Hardy into raptures, if not of genuine 
blank verse, at least of capitalized prose. Lady 
Sharlot responds in kind: 

How sweet applause is from an honest tongue ! 

Thou lov'st my mind — hast well affection placed ; 

In what, nor time, nor age, nor care, nor want can alter. 

Pure, I approach thee ; nor did I with empty shows, 
Gorgeous attire, or studied negligence, 
Or song, or dance, or ball, allure thy soul ; 

1 'Mr. Trusty is the earliest example of a type which became 
familiar to the stage and of which Sheridan's Rowley is the best- 
known specimen.' Ward, III, 494. 



158 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Nor want, or fear, such arts to keep or lose it : 
Nor now with fond reluctance doubt to enter 
My spacious, bright abode, this gallant heart. 

As she appropriately 'Reclines on Hardy,' the ' senti- 
mental Muse' seems already mounting toward that 
bad eminence from which Sheridan later sought to 
dethrone her. Lord Brompton, too, delivers to his 
son a moral harangue on the duties of British peers, 
in blank verse that limps perceptibly. Comedy 
slinks to the wings, while morality holds the centre of 
the stage, till Lord Brompton, with a belated sense of 
the exigencies of comedy, drops from verse to prose 
with a 'Not but I intend your nuptials as soon as 
possible, to draw entails and settlements.' The 
Epilogue, however, reverts to the author's moral pur- 
pose — 'He'd not aim to please only, but inspire' — 
and declares that 'Courage is brutal, if untouched 
with love.' If the success of The Funeral is to be at- 
tributed to the comic elements, its historical impor- 
tance lies chiefly in its introduction of conscious moral- 
ity and sentiment. 

The Lying Lover, or The Ladies' Friendship (1703), 
strikes more firmly the notes of morality and senti- 
ment already sounded in The Funeral. A passage in 
his Apology, 1 in which Steele declares himself 'a great 
Admirer ' of Jeremy Collier's work, says that he took 
it into his head 'to write a Comedy in the Severity he 
[Collier] required,' and adds : 'I have been a Martyr 
and Confessor for the Church; for this Play was 
damn'd for its Piety.' Dedication, Preface, and 
Prologue alike testify to the deliberate moral purpose. 
l Mr. Steele's Apology, 1714, p. 48. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 159 

In the first, he states that ' The design of it is to banish 
out of conversation all entertainment which does 
not proceed from simplicity of mind, good-nature, 
friendship, and honour ' ; in the second/ he confesses 
'an honest ambition to attempt a Comedy which might 
be no improper entertainment in a Christian common- 
wealth' ; and in the third, he suggests that he ' treads 
the stage With just regard to a reforming age.' More 
significant, however, than this distinct moral purpose 
is the development of sentiment in comedy. Dr. 
Ward 1 writes, 'The serious portion of the plot of 
The Lying Lover . . . renders this play remarkable 
as the first instance of Sentimental Comedy proper.' 
Following the tentative essays in The Funeral, this 
portion is largely cast in the form of blank verse. 

Perhaps the deepest significance of The Lying Lover 
is the proof it affords that sentiment was essentially 
a link between comedy and tragedy. The Preface 
remarks that Young Bookwit, the 'Lying Lover,' 
after prodigal waste of his opportunities, 'in the fifth 
Act awakes from his debauch, with the compunction 
and remorse which is suitable to a man's finding him- 
self in a gaol for the death of his friend, without his 
knowing why. The anguish he there expresses, and 
the mutual sorrow between an only child and a tender 
father in that distress, are, perhaps, an injury to the 
rules of comedy, but I am sure they are a justice to 
those of morality. And passages of such a nature 
being so frequently applauded on the stage, it is high 
time that we should no longer draw occasions of 
mirth from those images which the religion of our 

1 Ward, III, 495. 



160 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

country tells us we ought to tremble at with horror/ 
Equally significant is the Epilogue : 

Our too advent 'rous author soared to-night 
Above the little praise, mirth to excite, 
And chose with pity to chastise delight. 
For laughter's a distorted passion. . . . 

While generous pity of a painted woe 

Makes us ourselves both more approve and know. 

In thus deliberately appealing to pity instead of laugh- 
ter, sentimental comedy, in its very inception, links 
itself with the tragedy of Otway and Southerne. 
Henceforward, to adapt the words of Sir Fretful Pla- 
giary, the writer of sentimental comedy 'might take 
out some of the best things in tragedy, and put them 
into his own comedy.' A wide gulf yawns between the 
conception of comedy as ' Laughter holding both his 
sides' and Steele's idea that 'laughter's a distorted 
passion.' Already Thalia is beginning to lose her 
smile under the borrowed mask of her tragic sister. 

Steele could have little foreseen the devastating 
spread of those fires of revolution which he had helped 
to kindle. If the sentimentalized morality of the last 
act caused the play to be 'damned for its piety,' the 
earlier acts show that the author by no means aban- 
doned wholly the usual methods of comedy. The 
scene (III, i) where the rivals, Penelope and Victoria, 
misuse patch and powder to disfigure each other's 
charms has the piquant touch of Restoration light 
comedy. Even the introduction of the hero to New- 
gate prison does not forbid a comic scene (IV, 4) 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 161 

where he is hailed by the 'crowd of gaol-birds' as a 
hero, since he is thought to have killed his man. In 
borrowing from Corneille, Steele followed a familiar 
practice of English playwrights. The significance of 
The Lying Lover, however, rests not in its indebted- 
ness to Continental sources, but in its radical depar- 
tures into new fields. 

In The Lying Lover, Young Bookwit had pronounced 
himself (III, 2) 'the founder of accomplished fools, of 
which I'll institute an order.' This order Steele 
seems to have instituted in The Tender Husband, or 
The Accomplished Fools (1705). For the main title, 
and something of the treatment of the theme, he may 
have taken suggestions from Cibber's Careless Hus- 
band. In dedicating this play to Addison, who wrote 
the Prologue, Steele says that he would not offer it as 
a memorial of their friendship 'had I not been very 
careful to avoid everything that might look ill-natured, 
immoral, or prejudicial to what the better part of man- 
kind hold sacred and honourable.' Yet the opening 
scene develops Clerimont's repellant scheme of test- 
ing his wife by disguising his mistress, Fainlove, in 
man's attire, and the scene (V, 1) where Clerimont 
interrupts their assignation approaches too closely 
the dangerous path of Restoration comedy. It may 
be said that Steele reunites husband and wife in the 
recognition that married happiness rests on constant 
love, but it is a doubtful ethical standard that permits 
the erring husband to pose as tenderly magnanimous. 
When he condescendingly forgives his wife with the 
words, 'And now I have shown you your error, I'm 
in so good humour as to repeat you a couplet on the 



1 62 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

occasion/ one would gladly substitute 'Forgiveness to 
the injured does belong.' 

Far more interesting is that part of the play which 
concerns Biddy Tipkin and her cousin Humphry 
Gubbin — ancestors, in some sense, of Sheridan's 
Lydia Languish 1 and Goldsmith's Tony Lumpkin. 
Biddy Tipkin, who 'has spent all her solitude in read- 
ing romances ' and has renamed herself 'Parthenissa,' 
is steeped in French and English romances as thor- 
oughly as is Lydia Languish in the sentimental novels 
of the circulating library. Biddy's romantic ' humour ' 
gives rise to excellent comic scenes — with Clerimont, 
who humours her with the fantastic language of chiv- 
alry, and with her country bumpkin cousin, who sub- 
mits his intended bride to scrutiny, 'as not caring to 
buy a pig in a poke.' The scene (III, 2) where Biddy 
and her cousin agree to disagree, and the Aunt is led 
to think 'they are come to promises and protestations,' 
is closely akin to Goldsmith's scene between Tony 
Lumpkin and Miss Neville where Mrs. Hardcastle 
imagines they are billing and cooing. It is somewhat 
remarkable that Goldsmith and Sheridan who led so 
powerfully the revolt against sentimental comedy 
borrowed from Steele. Fielding, too, possibly found 
suggestions for Squire Western in Sir Harry Gubbin. 
On the other hand, Steele owed somewhat to Moliere, 
to Cibber, and to Addison, 2 while the passage (V, 2) 
in which Tipkin insists on being written down a rascal 
is obviously reminiscent of Dogberry. Viewed as a 

1 For more detailed comparison, see the present writer's Major 
Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Introduction, liv-lvi. 

2 See Steele's acknowledgement in The Spectator, No. 555. 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 163 

whole, The Tender Husband is perhaps Steele's most 
genuine comedy. 

During the period of The Tatler, The Spectator, and 
The Guardian, Steele turned from drama to essay. 
The Conscious Lovers (1722) resumes the vein of 
sentimental comedy. The attacks upon it of Dennis 
and other pamphleteers may have increased its suc- 
cess. Revivals of it were frequent for some forty 
years, and it was acted at times in the first decades 
of the next century. Definitely directed against 
duelling, it is devoted so seriously to the cause of 
virtue that the Preface declares some incidents 'are 
esteemed by some people no subjects of comedy.' 
The distresses of the sentimental Indiana drew tears 
from General Churchill. 1 Fielding's Parson Adams 
' never heard of any plays fit for a Christian to read, 
but Cato and The Conscious Lovers' and owned that 
'in the latter there are some things almost solemn 
enough for a sermon.' 2 Welsted's Prologue declares 
that Steele 'By new and desperate rules resolved to 
write,' and sought to 'please by wit that scorns the 
aids of vice.' The audience is invoked 'with breeding 
to refine the age, To chasten wit, and moralise the 
stage.' Fortunately, at Colley Cibber's suggestion,^ 
Steele admitted a larger comic element than he had 
at first allowed himself. The excellent scene where 
Tom recalls to Phillis his torments of love while he 
washed the outside of a window which she was clean- 
ing inside is a delightful bit of foolery — an uncon- 

1 See Steele's Preface, and G. A. Aitken's footnote, Mermaid edi- 
tion of Steele, p. 270. 

2 Joseph Andrews, Book III, Chapter XI (end). 



1 64 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

scious burlesque, one is tempted to suggest, of the sen- 
timent of the conscious lovers. Unhappily such by- 
play only partially relieves the essentially sentimental 
strain. More prominent are the virtuous loves of 
Bevil and Indiana, the moral heroics which tend to 
convert Bevil from hero to prig, and the tragic heart- 
rendings of Indiana before her restoration to her 
long-lost father. The dialogue responds to the sen- 
timental strain. 'If pleasure,' says Bevil (II, 2), 'be 
worth purchasing, how great a pleasure is it to him, 
who has a true taste of life, to ease an aching heart ; 
to see the human countenance lighted up into smiles 
of joy, on the receipt of a bit of ore which is super- 
fluous and otherwise useless in a man's own pocket ?' 
Bevil ushers the music-master to the door with less 
of the instinctive courtesy of the gentleman than the 
complaisant condescension of the conscious prig, 
declaring 'we ought to do something more than barely 
gratify them for what they do at our command, only 
because their fortune is below us.' To this Indiana 
responds with ' a smile of approbation ' and the senti- 
ment that she 'cannot but think it the distinguishing 
part of a gentleman to make his superiority of fortune 
as easy to his inferiors as he can.' Many of the 
scenes conclude with moral tags in verse. Already 
the habit of moral aphorism had fastened itself on 
comedy, a habit that was to develop to great extremes 
before it lost its charm in the mouth of the hypocrite, 
Joseph Surface. 

In the history of English drama, Richard Steele 
attains a prominence disproportionate to his actual 
dramatic merits. Without the dramatic power of 



ix THE MORAL REAWAKENING 165 

many of his Restoration predecessors, and without 
the insight that makes morality the ally, rather than 
the conscious master, of dramatic art, Steele at least 
perceived that the art that holds the mirror up to 
nature cannot be divorced from the greatest law of 
nature. Despite both his own ethical shortcomings 
and the excessive zeal that turned morality into 
moralizing, he gave powerful and salutary aid to a 
reform of vital necessity to drama. Yet, if Steele led 
the way to moral reform, he also led the way uncon- 
sciously to dramatic decay. Sentiment becomes in 
inferior hands sentimentality. The appeal of Steele's 
sentimental comedy to the emotion of pity became 
with inferior playwrights a false emotional motive. 
The doctrine that 'laughter's a distorted passion' led 
comedy to substitute tears for mirth. The moral 
reform of English drama was won at the expense of 
almost half a century during which Comedy bowed 
her head in the presence of Sentimentality. Restora- 
tion comedy has long worn the title of 'artificial/ 
but in another sense, it was an equally artificial 
comedy that in the first half of the eighteenth century 
offered its sacrifices to 'The Goddess of the woeful 
countenance — the Sentimental Muse.' 



CHAPTER X 

SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 1 

As the retirement of Congreve largely eclipsed the 
gaiety of comedy, the death of Dryden emphasized 
the close of Restoration tragedy. The fine frenzy 
of Lee had burned itself out in gusts of insanity; 
' tender Otway ' had long since met his tragic end. 
Neither the theatrical declamation of Banks nor the 
sentimental pathos of Southerne could achieve an 
All for Love or a Venice Preserved. At the time of 
Collier's invective, an enfeebled tragedy held the 
stage. The brunt of his attack had fallen naturally 
upon comedy. With the exception of its coarsely 
comic prologues and epilogues, Restoration tragedy 
had done violence to nature rather than to morality. 
Its very unreality had removed it from the fashionable 
vice which had been too faithfully reproduced in 
contemporary comedy. The heroic drama had torn 
passion to tatters, yet there had remained shreds of 
heroic valour and love. With the awakening tendency 
to reform the stage, tragedy became more moralized 
and more sentimentalized. The titles of some of the 
tragedies of 1698 distinctly suggest a recurrence to 
themes of heroic drama — Victorious Love; The Fatal 
Discovery, or Love in Ruins; Heroick Love; Beauty 

1 The present chapter is not confined rigidly to the exact limits of 
Queen Anne's reign, 1 702-1 714. 

166 



chap, x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 167 

in Distress; Queen Catharine, or The Ruins of Love. 
Though Mrs. Pix's Queen Catharine has English char- 
acters, most of the tragedies of the year give to their 
themes of love and valour a foreign setting. Crowne's 
Caligula reverts even to the use of rhyme. Yet not 
love itself, but the ghost of love moves among the ruins 
of heroic sentiment. In vain did George Granville 
proclaim the heroine of his Heroick Love 

The brightest Pattern of Heroick Love 

And perfect Virtue, that the World e're knew. (V, 2) 

In the dire distress of comedy, the writers of tragedy 
may perhaps have seen an opportunity which they 
lacked ability to grasp. It is dangerous to generalize 
from imperfect dataj but Genest's lists of plays pro- 
duced at the various London theatres seem to show 
a preponderance of comedies for the years 1696 and 
1697, and of tragedies for the years 1698 and 1699. 
Yet the decline of comedy, owing partly to dearth 
of comic genius, partly to its more rigorous restriction, 
and partly to its increasing substitution of sentiment 
and pathetic appeal instead of mirth, cannot be said to 
be accompanied by a corresponding rise in tragedy. If 
the waters of tragedy broaden, they do not run deep. 
Neither the advent of female dramatists like Mrs. 
Manley, Mrs. Pix, and Catharine Cockburn (later 
Mrs. Trotter), nor the excursions of critics like Charles 
Gildon and John Dennis in the field of drama, could 
vitalize tragedy. Alike unavailing were Dennis's 
attempts, in 1699, to borrow tragic themes from Tasso 
in Rinaldo and Armida, and from Euripides in 
Iphigenia. 



1 68 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

While the stage was sore beset by Collier and other 
foes from without, it had to struggle against enemies 
from within. Attention has already been directed 
to the tangible effect upon drama of the elaboration 
of scenery and stage mechanism and of the operatic 
accessories of music and dancing. The last decades 
of the seventeenth century show many proofs of the 
continued force of such influences. Dorset Gardens, 
in Dryden's words, 'the gaudy house with scenes,' 
became increasingly a home for spectacle. The 
Prologue to Farquhar's Constant Couple (1699) laments: 

Ah, friends ! Poor Dorset-Garden house is gone ; 
Our merry meetings there are all undone : 
Quite lost to us, sure for some strange misdeeds, 
That strong dog Samson's pull'd it o'er our heads. 

Under Christopher Rich its 'gay shows' were devoted 
frequently to feats of acrobats and exhibitions of ani- 
mals. Cibber recalls Rich's project of introducing 
'an extraordinary large Elephant' and his reluctant 
abandonment of ' so hopeful a Prospect of making the 
Receipts of the Stage run higher than all the Wit and 
Force of the best Writers had ever yet rais'd them to.' 1 
Dorset Gardens Theatre was not alone in catering 
to the popular taste for 'such conceits as clownage 
keeps in pay.' The Prologue to Steele's Funeral 
(1701) begins thus: 

Nature's deserted, and dramatic art, 
To dazzle now the eye, has left the heart ; 
Gay lights and dresses, long extended scenes, 
Demons and angels moving in machines, 

1 Apology, II, 6-7. 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 169 

All that can now, or please, or fright the fair, 

May be performed without a writer's care, 

And is the skill of carpenter, not player. 

Old Shakespeare's days could not thus far advance ; 

But what's his buskin to our ladder dance ? 

A generation earlier Dryden had deplored the advent 
of a 'French troop' that 'left their itch of novelty be- 
hind/ His forebodings were amply justified. Downes 
says in his Roscius Anglicanus (1708) 1 : 'In the space 
of Ten Years past, Mr. Betterton [then manager of 
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre] to gratify the desires and 
Fancies of the Nobility and Gentry; procur'd from 
Abroad the best Dances and Singers, as, Monsieur 
UAbbe, Madam Sublini [Subligny], Monsieur Baton, 
Margarita Delpine, Maria Gallia and divers others; 
who being Exorbitantly Expensive, produc'd small 
Profit to him and his Company, but vast Gain to them- 
selves.' To the same effect runs the testimony of 
Colley Cibber and Charles Gildon, 2 while Rowe, in the 
Epilogue to The Ambitious Step-Mother (1700), pro- 
duced at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, declares : 

Show but a Mimick Ape, or French buffoon, 
You to the other House in Shoals are gone, 
And leave us here to tune our Crowds alone. 
Must Shakespear, Fletcher, and laborious Ben, 
Be left for Scaramouch and Harlequin ? 

Referring to a somewhat later date, Colley Cibber 
says that 'the Patentee of Drury-Lane [Rich] went 
on in his usual Method of paying extraordinary Prices 

X P.46. 

2 Apology, I, 316-317. Gildon, A Comparison between the Two 
Stages, 1702, p. 49 : 'The Town ran mad to see him' [Balon]. 



170 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

to Singers, Dancers, and other exotick Performers, 
which were as constantly deducted out of the sinking 
Sallaries of his Actors. . . . For it seems he had not 
purchas'd his Share of the Patent to mend the Stage, 
but to make Money of it. . . . His point was to 
please the Majority, who could more easily compre- 
hend any thing they saw than the daintiest things that 
could be said to them.' 1 Yet even Cibber, whose 
Apology bristles in defence of regular drama, and who 
once refused to appear on the stage on the same day 
with 'a Set of Rope-dancers,' 2 confesses that, as a 
manager, he compromised his convictions, 'and had 
not Virtue enough to starve by opposing a Multitude 
that would have been too hard for me.' 3 

Among the var ous stage diversions which thus 
challenged regular drama in the competition for popu- 
lar favour none was more conspicuous, in the first 
decade of the eighteenth century, than Italian opera. 
Some account has been given previously of D'Ave- 
nant's introduction of English opera and of the subse- 
quent development of what Cibber describes 4 as 'a new 
Species of Plays, since call'd Dramatick Opera's, of 
which kind were the Tempest, Psyche, Circe, and others, 
all set off with the most expensive Decorations of 
Scenes and Habits, with the best Voices and Dancers.' 
In his Prologue spoken at the Opening of the New House 
(1674), Dryden declared it folly 

To build a playhouse while you throw down plays ; 
While scenes, machines, and empty operas reign. 

1 Apology, II, 6. 2 Ibid., II, 7. 

3 Ibid., II, 182. *Ibid., I, 94- 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 171 

Yet Dry den himself, in 1685, produced his opera 
Albion and Albanius, and in the Preface defined opera 
as 'a poetical tale, or fiction, represented by vocal 
and instrumental music, adorned with scenes, ma- 
chines, and dancing.' The English stage had, there- 
fore, been familiar with some forms of opera long 
before the appearance of Arsinoe (1705) which Addi- 
son calls ' the first opera that gave us a taste of Italian 
music.' 1 Cibber pictures 2 unsparingly the advent of 
Italian opera in England 'in as rude a disguise and un- 
like it self as possible ; in a lame, hobling Translation 
into our own Language, with false Quantities, or Metre 
out of Measure to its original Notes, sung by our 
own unskilful Voices, with Graces misapply'd to al- 
most every Sentiment, and with Action lifeless and 
unmeaning through every Character.' Native Eng- 
lish writers vigorously denounced the foreign invader. 
In the Epilogue to The Tender Husband (1705), Steele 
bade Britons 

From foreign insult save this English stage. 

No more th' Italian squalling tribe admit, 

In tongues unknown. k 

John Dennis, in An Essay on the Opera's After the Italian 
Manner, Which are about to be Establish 1 d on the English 
Stage (1706), after pronouncing Italian opera 'mon- 
struous,' declares 3 that in Italy, however, it is * a beauti- 
ful harmonious Monster, but here in England 'tis an 
ugly howling one.' Addison, whose later strictures on 

1 The Spectator, No. 18. This entire paper, together with Nos. 5, 
13, and 29, should be consulted for Addison's views on opera. 

2 Apology, I, 324. 



172 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Italian opera include an attack on the mongrel blend- 
ing of English words with the Italian recitativo style, 1 
seemingly attempted, with the aid of the composer 
Clayton, to produce in Rosamond (1707) a native 
English opera. 2 Yet dramatists like Vanbrugh and 
Congreve recognized, as managers, the 'prevailing 
Novelty' by opening ' their new Hay-Market Theatre 
with a translated Opera to Italian Musick, called the 
Triumph of Love' 3 (1705). Of three distinguished 
operatic singers, Valentini, Nicolini, and Mrs. Tofts, 
Colley Cibber himself says 4 that ' three such excellent 
Performers in the same kind of Entertainment at once, 
England till this Time had never seen.' The main 
reliance of Rich during the Drury Lane season of 1 706- 
1707 was opera. Rinaldo (1711), the first of Handel's 
numerous operas for the English stage, was a popular 
success. Doubtless the effect of opera upon the drama 
is to be measured not merely by the extent to which it 
usurped the place of drama on the public stage, but 
also by the inevitable tendencies of its theatrical and 
spectacular features toward the improbable and the 
unnatural in dramatic representation. 

Notwithstanding the powerful forces that thus 
threatened regular drama, its cause was by no means 
desperate. During the first decade of the eighteenth 
century, Elizabethan and Restoration plays were con- 

1 The Spectator, No. 29. 

2 ' It appears to have been intended as a kind of protest against the 
librettos of operas written to suit the English performers, who helped 
out the arias and duets sung by the Italians in their native tongue.' 
Ward, III, 323, footnote. 

3 Apology, I, 325. 

* Ibid., II, 55- 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 173 

stantly reproduced. Tragedies of Shakespeare — some 
of them, unfortunately, in their Restoration per- 
versions — tragi-comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, 
heroic dramas of Dry den, and many plays of Otway, 
Lee, Banks, Southerne, and Congreve may fairly be 
regarded as stock plays of the period. Nor was the 
theatre forced to draw its vitality wholly from the 
strength of the past. Farquhar, Cibber, and Steele 
won success in comedy. Tragedy, which seemed 
for a time to have fallen upon evil days, found some 
encouragement in the advent of a new dramatist of 
real ability. 

On the death of his father, a London barrister, 
Nicholas Rowe (1 674-1 718) turned from the un- 
congenial pursuit of law to drama. The Ambitious 
Step-Mother (1700) gives to court intrigues an Oriental 
setting, somewhat in the fashion of heroic tragedy, 
but with a pathetic appeal in the self-sacrifice of 
Cleone which recalls Otway. Betterton, Mrs. Brace- 
girdle, and Mrs. Barry gave the play much of its stage 
success. Tamerlane (1702), the tragedy on which, 
it was said, 1 the author 'valu'd himself most,' was 
helped by its political intention. The hero was drawn 
to suggest William III, and his rival, Bajazet, to sug- 
gest Louis XIV. Until 181 5, it was played annually 
at Drury Lane on 5 November, the anniversary of 
the landing of William III and of the Gunpowder 
Plot. The moralized sentiments of the hero show the 
stirrings of sentimental drama. 

The Fair Penitent (1703), a sentimental adaptation 

1 James Welwood, Preface, p. xl, to Lucan's Pharsalia; Translated 
into English Verse, by Nicholas Rowe, 1720 edition. 



174 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

from The Fatal Dowry by Massinger and Field, was 
one of the most successful tragedies of the eighteenth 
century. 1 Doctor Johnson said, 2 ' There is scarcely 
any work of any poet at once so interesting by the 
fable and so delightful by the language. ' Like 
Otway's Orphan and Southerne's Fatal Marriage, 
The Fair Penitent is essentially a domestic tragedy. 
The Prologue shows that Rowe was deliberate in his 
choice of theme : 

Long has the fate of kings and empires been 
The common bus'ness of the tragick scene, 
As if misfortune made the throne her seat, 
And none cou'd be unhappy but the great. 



Stories like these with wonder we may hear, 
But far remote, and in a higher sphere, 
We ne'er can pity what we ne'er can share. 



Therefore an humbler theme our author chose, 

A melancholy tale of private woes : 

No princes here lost royalty bemoan, 

But you shall meet with sorrows like your own. 

Tragedy becomes not merely domestic, but moralized. 
Horatio is full of wise saws such as 'To be good is 
to be happy,' and 'Guilt is the source of sorrow.' 3 
In a concluding speech he points the moral in a 
rhymed tag which may be compared with the last 
lines in Steele's contemporary comedy, The Lying 
Lover (1703) : 

1 Genest cites more than a score of revivals up to 1824. 

2 Lives of the English Poets, Hill edition, 1905, II, 67. 

3 III, 1, 98, 100. 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 175 

By such examples are we taught to prove, 
The sorrows that attend unlawful love ; 
Death, or some worse misfortunes, soon divide 
The injur'd bridegroom from his guilty bride : 
If you would have the nuptial union last, 
Let virtue be the bond that ties it fast. 

Compared with its Elizabethan model, The Fatal 
Dowry, by Massinger and Field, The Fair Penitent is 
less free and varied. With a consciousness of French 
restrictions, Rowe reduces the characters to eight, 
condenses the time of action, and simplifies the action. 
This simplification, indeed, is carried too far. Rowe 
begins with the end of Massinger's second act, and has 
accordingly to give in the first part of the play too 
much exposition of matter which Massinger presents 
actually. In Massinger, the hero dominates ; in 
Rowe, the villain. Massinger's heroine, already mar- 
ried, is seduced through the contrivance of a serving- 
woman, and her repentance is that of a contrite heart. 
Calista's hot passion accounts for her own downfall, 
and she yields to a disgraceful marriage later. Nor 
does her penitence begin until she is found out. How- 
ever 'fair,' she is not really 'penitent.' The father 
in Massinger's play is tender and full of anguish; 
Calista's parent is a Roman father. The freedom 
and vitality of the Elizabethan play are lacking in 
Rowe's work. 

The Prologue sets forth still another principle of 
Rowe's creed : 

Who writes shou'd still let nature be his care, 

Mix shades with lights, and not paint all things fair, 

But shew you men and women as they are. 



176 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

It is somewhat curious that Rowe, whose Lothario 
and Calista evidently influenced Richardson's Lovelace 
and Clarissa, should be here setting forth a creed that 
would suit Thackeray better than Richardson. To 
a certain extent Rowe may be said to have succeeded 
in his attempt to blend shade with light. Altamont 
and Horatio, though somewhat icily regular, are at 
least not faultily faultless. Lothario has the courage 
of his vices and evidently some personal magnetism. 
The ' haughty, gallant, gay Lothario ' — as Calista 
calls him in the fifth act — has achieved the rare 
distinction of a place among those characters whose 
mere names connote the characterizing epithet. 
Even in the last act, when the villain is dead, his body 
dominates the sinister scene. The 'Scene is a room 
hung with black ; on one side Lothario's body on 
a bier; on the other a table with a skull and other 
bones, a book, and a lamp on it. Calista is discover'd 
on a couch in black, her hair hanging loose and dis- 
ordered : after musick and a song, she rises and comes 
forward.' It is a scene that points backward to the 
Elizabethans, and forward to Joanna Baillie's imita- 
tions a century later. 

In the next years Rowe's dramatic work declines 
abruptly. In The Biter (1704), he encountered his 
only real dramatic failure. Ulysses (1705), 1 a classi- 
cal tragedy, whose story Genest conservatively pro- 
nounces 'less interesting' than Homer, and The 
Royal Convert (1707), based on Hengist and early 
British history, abandon the Elizabethan type. In 

1 This play has recently been assigned to 1706, but Genest gives 
the first performance, 23 November, 1705. 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 177 

1709, Rowe published his six- volume edition of 
Shakespeare, with a biography based partly on ma- 
terial collected by Betterton, with lists of the dramatis 
persona and indications of exits and entrances, and 
with some revision of the text in spelling and 
punctuation. It was the first critical edition of 
Shakespeare. 

The study of Shakespeare directly influenced Rowe's 
subsequent dramatic career, In Jane Shore (1714) 
and Lady Jane Gray (17 15), he strove to follow Shake- 
speare. The first is professedly 'Written in Imitation 
of Shakespear's Style.' In the Prologue to The Am- 
bitious Step-Mother he had already delivered the 
curious verdict that Shakespeare excelled in male 
characters only : 

Shakespear, whose Genius to it self a Law, 
Could Men in every Height of Nature draw, 
And copy'd all but Women that he saw. 

As Dryden had hoped to refine Shakespeare's lan- 
guage, Rowe seemingly thought to supply his defi- 
ciency in heroines. At least, his last dramas are, to 
borrow the phrase in the Epilogue to Jane Shore, 
'She-tragedies.' His imitation of Shakespeare has 
been regarded by some as merely nominal. Yet 
most of the male characters of Jane Shore figure in 
Richard III, and Gloster himself, though reduced 
by Rowe to a subordinate position, shows signs of 
Shakespeare's influence. 

In comparison with The Fair Penitent, Jane Shore 
shows dramatic progress. The earlier tragedy de- 
pended largely on scenic background and the acces- 



178 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

sories of fertile invention. In Jane Shore the heroine 
is a true penitent, and arouses more genuine pity. 
The appeal, as in Otway, is largely feminine, and some- 
times Rowe descends to mere tameness. Yet the hall- 
mark of his tragedies is refinement . The grossness 
of the elder dramatists gives way before an impulse 
of higher, tone. His verse may appeal rather to the 
ear than to the heart, his sentiment may be surcharged 
with moralizing, but if he lacks masculine vigour he 
is at least free from animal brutality. 

Rowe is the dramatist of repentant love. Ad- 
mitting no comic relief, and ruling himself largely in 
accordance with Gallic restraint and convention, 
he follows to a large extent the French traditions. 
But in professing to imitate Shakespeare, and in cer- 
tainly following Otway, he links to English drama. 
Despite his laureateship, he lacked genuine poetic 
impulse. He could touch pity, but not with the fer- 
vour of poetic passion. As a dramatist he lacked dif- 
ferentiation of character. Though Richard III does 
not have the characteristic Shakespearean develop- 
ment of minor characters, it is only necessary to com- 
pare the historical characters in Jane Shore with those 
in Richard III to see how Rowe omits the details 
which are the charm, not merely, as Macaulay says, 
of biography, but also of drama. With all his de- 
fects, Rowe holds a place of his own in the history of 
English tragedy. His most important plays main- 
tained their vitality through the whole of the eigh- 
teenth century, and well into the nineteenth. Garrick, 
Charles Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Yates, Kean, 
and Macready are but some of those who won- sue- 



X SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 179 

cess in his dramas. The best of them were translated 
into French, and published in many English editions. 
Even to-day, when his tragedies are no longer familiar 
to playgoers, the character of Lothario has not lost 
its individuality. 

The Elizabethan tendencies of Rowe's later plays 
should not be mistaken for evidence of the general 
state of drama. The sympathies of Queen Anne 
critics were habitually with classical precept and prac- 
tice. The powerful influence of Addison was felt in 
the direction of dramatic rule and regularity. Rowe 
himself, in restricting characters and action and ex- 
cluding comedy, follows largely Continental examples. 
The direct influence of Racine upon English tragedy 
appears in Edmund Smith's Phcedra and Hippolytus 
(1707), 1 modelled on Phedre, and Ambrose Philips 's 
Distrest Mother (17 12), a slightly modified translation 
of Andromaque. Addison wrote a prologue for the first 
and an epilogue for the second, while Steele's com- 
ments in The Spectator increased the vogue of The 
Distrest Mother. Philips doubtless owed much of his 
initial success to the popular tone of moralizing 
sentiment, but in following Racine he contributed 
to the strengthening of classical influences. 

A conspicuous triumph for classical drama was won 
by Joseph Addison (1672-1719) in Cato (1713). Like 
Dryden, Addison had critical taste rather than natural 
dramatic instinct. Like both Dryden and Steele, 
he felt the force of the theatrical tide. No stronger 
evidence of the continued hold of the drama need be 

1 The date, 1706, recently given by several critics, seems to over- 
look Genest, II, 368, who says, 21 April, 1707. 



180 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

sought than in the long line of masters of other forms 
of literature who have become servants for a time of 
drama. Perhaps only the Elizabethan age found 
its natural and characteristic expression in drama. 
Yet the critical essayists of the Queen Anne period 
and the creative poets of the Victorian alike felt the 
same magnet. Addison's opera, Rosamond, and his 
feeble comedy, The Drummer (1716), though failures, 
show his attempts to win the applause of the theatre. 
Not even the signal and continued stage success of 
Cato can disguise the fact that Addison's genius was 
non-dramatic. Addison was the Spectator who saw 
the outside rather than the heart. He is without 
the dramatist's impulse to animate character into 
action. Sir Roger de Cover ley might possibly have 
been the hero of a character novel, but hardly of a 
drama. The stage triumph of Cato may have seemed 
an effective answer to Pope's advice to Addison to 
have the play printed rather than acted ; but Pope's 
judgment was wiser perhaps than he knew. 

Much of Addison's unquestionable influence upon 
English drama must be sought in his critical work. 
Though in at least one striking passage 1 he puts 
Shakespeare's genius above artificial restraints, Addi- 
son was at heart a confirmed classicist. He had the 
French fondness for the unities, the distaste for tragi- 
comedy, 2 the dislike not merely of stage violence but 
of excess of emotional appeal. 3 Yet in banishing 
excess of emotion, Addison came dangerously near 

1 The Spectator, No. 592. 

2 Ibid., No. 40. 

3 Ibid., No. 44. 



x SOME ASPECTS OF QUEEN ANNE DRAMA 181 

banishing emotion itself. He saw the absurdities of 
Nicolini and the Lion, and of ' painted dragons spitting 
wildfire, enchanted chariots drawn by Flanders mares, 
and real cascades in artificial landskips ' 1 in Handel's 
Rinaldo, but not the artificiality of his own Romans. 
Rant he calls one of 'the blemishes, or rather the 
false beauties, of our English tragedy.' 2 Yet Doctor 
Johnson said 3 that the success of Cato induced ' the 
use of dialogue too declamatory, of unaffecting ele- 
gance, and chill philosophy.' 

Cato is an appeal to the reason. Cato and his com- 
panions, like Plato, reason well. But they remain 
abstractions of thought, rather than living personal- 
ities. Cato has the chill of a statue, a Galatea without 
the touch of life that permits descent from the pedestal. 
As Doctor Johnson says, 4 'It is rather a poem in 
dialogue than a drama, rather a succession of just 
sentiments in elegant language than a representation 
of natural affections, or of any state probable 
or possible in human life .... The events are 
expected without solicitude, and are remembered 
without joy or sorrow.' 

Despite Pope's fear that Cato was a closet rather 
than an acting drama, circumstances combined to make 
it a great success. In Doctor Johnson's familiar 
words, 5 'The Whigs applauded every line in which 
Liberty was mentioned, as a satire on the Tories; 
and the Tories echoed every clap, to shew that the 
satire was unfelt.' Yet its success did not rest wholly 

1 The Spectator, No. 5. 2 Ibid., No. 40. 

8 Lives of the English Poets, Hill edition, 1905, II, 133. 

*Ibid., II, 132. 6 Ibid., II, 100-101. 



\ 



182 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, x 

on local politics. It was translated into Italian, 
French, and German. Voltaire hailed it as a master- 
piece, and called its author ' The first English Writer 
who compos' d a regular Tragedy [tragedie raisonnable] 
and infus'd a Spirit of Elegance thro' every Part of 
it.' l The classicists had, indeed, scant reason for 
complaint. The action takes place in 'a large Hall in 
the Governor's Palace of Utica,' the time is confined 
to ' the great, th' important Day ; big with the Fate Of 
Cato and of Rome,' and the interest centres in Cato. 
Death occurs off the stage in the case of Marcus, 
while it is again off the stage that Cato runs on his 
sword, though he is brought in dying. There are 
feeble attempts at local colour, but Addison's Numid- 
ian touches suggest no more than Dryden's faint Span- 
ish and Oriental settings. Everywhere the chill of 
death seems to rest. The characters are benumbed 
in action and constrained in expression. Even the 
passages that are commonplaces of quotation suffer 
from want of vital feeling. It is a striking commen- 
tary on the artificiality of the Queen Anne age that the 
cold formality of Cato kindled the fires of party spirit. 
In the Prologue, Pope had sought to rally support 
for the native English drama : 

Our Scene precariously subsists too long 
On French Translation, and Italian Song. 
Dare to have Sense your selves ; Assert the Stage ; 
Be justly warm'd with your own Native Rage. 

Yet Cato in reality chilled the ' native rage' of English 
tragedy with the classical restraints of Continental 
drama. 

1 Letters concerning the English Nation (translated), 1733, p. 178. 



CHAPTER XI 

PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 

Cato was a temporary triumph, not a permanent 
victory, for the cause of classical drama. The ap- 
pearance of Rowe's Jane Shore, in the following year, 
showed that the Elizabethan tradition had not been 
forgotten. Year after year, the chief Shakespearean 
tragedies continued to hold the boards, and revivals 
of other Elizabethan plays were frequent. During 
the Drury Lane winter season of 17 13-17 14 there were 
productions of The Tempest and of Henry IV, Part I, 
of Ben Jonson's Volpone, Bartholomew Fair, The Silent 
Woman, and The Alchemist, of Beaumont and Flet- 
cher's Philaster, and of Fletcher's Humorous Lieuten- 
ant. Yet, if the French classical influence upon Eng- 
lish drama of the period has often been exaggerated, 
there is no reason for underestimating its real impor- 
tance. The great success of Philips in The Distrest 
Mother stimulated other translations of Racine and 
of Corneille. Among them were Colley Cibber's 
Heroic Daughter, or Ximena (17 12), an adaptation of 
Le Cid, China 's Conspiracy (1713), a free rendering 
of Corneille 's Cinna, and versions of Racine's I phi- 
genie. Thus the long strife between French theory 
and English practice was maintained on the English 
stage with almost incessant fluctuations in the tide of 
battle. In point of fact, the actual dramatic product 

183 



184 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

was often an unconscious compromise between two 
extremes. Rowe, who confessedly imitated Shake- 
speare's style, had the French dislike for tragi-comedy 
and usually observed the French restraint as to scope 
of action and number of characters. Translators 
and followers of French dramatic models did not 
escape the influence of English sentimental drama. 
Even the most conspicuous classical triumphs of 
Philips and Addison were founded on the distresses 
of the heroine and the moralized sentiments of the 
hero. 

In the first decade of the eighteenth century, regular 
drama had found a formidable rival in Italian opera. 
With the second decade, there came into prominence 
a still more powerful rival — English pantomime. 
The traditional account of its origin should not, of 
course, he held to imply that English pantomime 
sprang full-fledged from the head of John Rich (1682 ?- 
1 761). Pantomimic action of a sort had long been 
known on the English stage. The ' dumb-shows' 
which Hamlet found 'inexplicable' had been intro- 
duced in Gorboduc, the first English tragedy. Masque, 
opera, and spectacle had, during the Restoration 
period, developed to a notable degree scenic and me- 
chanical effects. Mrs. Behn had introduced a Harle- 
quin in her Emperor of the Moon (1687). Yet, in the 
adaptation to his own purposes of earlier stage proper- 
ties and devices and in the creation of his own novel- 
ties, John Rich is fairly entitled to credit for original- 
ity. Even if one were to accept Colley Cibber's 
questionable ascription of the origin of pantomime 
to John Weaver's Drury Lane production of The 



xi PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 185 

Loves of Mars and Venus (1716 or 1717), 1 Rich may 
be said to have formulated the popular type. 

Cibber recounts 2 how, when our ' English Musick 
had been so discountenanced since the Taste of 
Italian Operas prevail'd,' his company decided to 
exploit dancing, a feature that had been popular at 
the rival theatre. 'To give even Dancing therefore 
some Improvement, and to make it something more 
than Motion without Meaning, the Fable of Mars 
and Venus was form'd into a connected Presentation 
of Dances in Character, wherein the Passions were so 
happily expressed, and the whole Story so intelligibly 
told by a mute Narration of Gesture only, that even 
thinking Spectators allow'd it both a pleasing and 
a rational Entertainment. . . . From this original 
Hint then (but every way unequal to it) sprung forth 
that Succession of monstrous Medlies that have so 
long infested the Stage.' Reluctantly Cibber goes on 
to confess his own share in ' these Fooleries, ' but adds : 
1 Notwithstanding, then, this our Compliance with 
the vulgar Taste, we generally made use of these 
Pantomimes but as Crutches to our weakest Plays : 
Nor were we so lost to all Sense of what was valuable 
as to dishonour our best Authors in such bad Com- 
pany : We had still a due Respect to several select 
Plays that were able to be their own Support ; and in 
which we found our constant Account, without 
painting and patching them out, like Prostitutes, with 
these Follies in fashion.' 

1 The earlier date is claimed by Weaver. See his History of the 
Mimes and Pantomimes, 1728, p. 46. 

2 Apology, II, 179 ff. 



186 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

The obvious inference from Colley Cibber's account 
is that the ' original hint' for English pantomime 
is to be found in The Loves of Mars and Venus, John 
Weaver's Drury Lane entertainment. Weaver was a 
noted dancing master, who, according to Biographia 
Dramatica, ' also wrote several judicious books, which 
show that a head was not wanting to his heels.' 
Among half a dozen treatises concerned with the art 
of dancing is a work entitled The History of the Mimes 
and Pantomimes, 1 which includes ' A List of the Mod- 
ern Entertainments that have been Exhibited on the 
English Stage; either in Imitation of the Ancient 
Pantomimes, or after the Manner of the Modern Ital- 
ians.' If his own testimony is to be accepted, he 
must be credited with a considerable part in the 
stage history of his day. He styles his Loves of Mars 
and Venus 'an Attempt in Imitation of the ancient 
Pantomimes, and the first of that kind that has ap- 
peared since the Time of the Roman Emperors. 7 
Much earlier than this, however, was his production, 
in 1702, of The Tavern Bilkers. This he terms 'the 
first Entertainment that appeared on the English 
Stage, where the Representation and Story was car- 
ried on by Dancing, Action and Motion only.' The 
various entertainments produced by Weaver seem, at 
least, forerunners of Rich's more conspicuous successes. 

At all events, the essential credit — or discredit, as 
Cibber would have held it — for establishing English 
pantomime thoroughly in popular favour belongs to 
Rich. He had no more scruples than his father in 

Printed 1728. The 'List' occupies pp. 43-56. For quotations, 
see pp. 45-46. 



xi PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 187 

complying with 'the vulgar taste.' Recognizing that 
his theatrical gift lay rather in mimicry than in spoken 
dialogue, he was clever enough to make capital out 
of the very limitation of his talent. Acting habitually 
under the name of 'Lun,' Rich made Harlequin an 
actual pantomimic part, but with Rich actions spoke 
louder than words. Of the general character of his 
pantomimes sufficient indication may be found in the 
prose of Thomas Davies and the verse of Pope. 
Davies, who credits Rich with the creation of pan- 
tomime, gives 1 this description of it : 'It consisted of 
two parts, one serious, and the other comic : by the 
help of gay scenes, fine habits, grand dances, appro- 
priated music, and other decorations, he exhibited a 
story from Ovid's Metamorphosis [sic], or some other 
fabulous writer. Between the pauses or acts of this 
serious representation, he interwove a comic fable, 
consisting chiefly of the courtship of Harlequin and 
Columbine, with a variety of surprising adventures 
and tricks, which were produced by the magic wand 
of Harlequin; such as the sudden transformation of 
palaces and temples to huts and cottages ; of men and 
women into wheel-barrows and joint-stools ; of trees 
turned to houses ; colonades to beds of tulips ; and 
mechanics shops into serpents and ostriches.' The 
familiar lines in Pope's Dunciad (iii, 233 ff.) may 
supplement this account: 

[He] look'd, and saw a sable Sorc'rer rise, 
Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies : 
All sudden, Gorgons hiss, and Dragons glare. 
And ten-horn'd fiends and Giants rush to war. 

1 Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, ' New Edition,' 1780, 1, 92. 



1 88 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth, 
Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth, 
A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball, 
Till one wide conflagration swallows all. 

Thence a new world, to Nature's laws unknown, 
Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own : 
Another Cynthia her new journey runs, 
And other planets circle other suns. 
The forests dance, the rivers upward rise, 
Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies ; 
And last, to give the whole creation grace, 
Lo ! one vast Egg produces human race. 

This last line is a definite allusion to Rich's famous 
trick of ' the hatching of Harlequin by the heat of the 
sun.' Jackson, in his History of the Scottish Stage, 1 
describes this ' master-piece in dumb-shew. From 
the first chipping of the egg, his receiving motion, 
his feeling the ground, his standing upright, to his 
quick Harlequin trip round the empty shell, through 
the whole progression, every limb had its tongue, and 
every motion a voice, which " spoke with most mirac- 
ulous organ," to the understandings and sensations 
of the observers.' 

The success of the pantomimes led the Patent 
Theatres to rival each other. In 1723, Thurmond's 
elaborate Drury Lane pantomime, Harlequin Dr. 
Faustus, was offset at Lincoln's Inn Fields by Rich's 
Necromancer, or the History of Dr. Faustus. The 
theatres advanced their prices on pantomime nights, 
and their receipts from such performances doubled 
those from regular drama. 2 Davies declares 3 'that of 

1 pp- 367-368. 

2 Genest, in, 158. 

3 Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, I, 93. 



xi PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 189 

all the pantomimes which Rich brought on the stage, 
from the Harlequin Sorcerer, in the year 171 7, to the 
last which was exhibited a year before his death 
[1761] . . . there was scarce one which failed to 
please the public, who testified their approbation 
of them forty or fifty nights successively.' Hence- 
forth, pantomime was firmly established on the 
English stage. 

Not content with his popular triumphs in pan- 
tomime, Rich introduced at Lincoln's Inn Fields 
another powerful rival to regular drama. In The 
Beggar's Opera (1728), John Gay (1685-173 2) achieved 
one of the most conspicuous stage triumphs in English 
dramatic history. 'The vast Success of that new 
Species of Dramatick Poetry' was, to Colley Cibber, 1 
further proof of 'the vulgar taste.' 'Cato,' he wrote, 
'succeeded, but reach'd not, by full forty Days, the 
Progress and Applauses of the Beggars Opera.' In 
another passage, 2 he declared that 'if the Judgment 
of the Crowd were infallible : I am afraid we shall 
be reduc'd to allow that the Beggars Opera was the 
best-written Play . . . that ever our English Theatre 
had to boast of.' Yet even Cibber admits that 'that 
Critick, indeed, must be rigid to a Folly that would 
deny . . . due Praise' to such extraordinary success. 
The opera that 'made Gay rich and Rich gay' had 
over sixty performances during the season. 3 . It was 

1 Apology, I, 243, 245. 
*im., I, 3x8. 

3 The note in The Dunciad (iii, 330), that it was 'acted in London 
sixty-three days, uninterrupted,' helps to explain frequent misstate- 
ments as to the continuous run of the piece. See Genest, III, 222, 
227-228. 



I go ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

the talk of the town ; its scenes and verses were repre- 
sented on fans; its songs were sung everywhere; 
Lavinia Fenton, who bewitched the town in the part 
of Polly Peachum, ended by running away with the 
Duke of Bolton. 'We are as full of it,' wrote Swift 1 
from Dublin, ' pro modulo nostro as London can be; 
continually acting, and Houses crammed, and the 
Lord Lieutenant several times there laughing his 
Heart out.' 

Gay's great triumph came after some theatrical 
experience. Dissatisfied with the trade of mercer to 
which he had been apprentice, he finally determined 
to follow his literary tastes. His tragi-comi-pas- 
toral farce, What-d? ye-call-it (17 15) ridiculed popular 
tragedies, especially Venice Preserved, in the general 
fashion of The Rehearsal. Pope and Arbuthnot 
assisted him in the mediocre farce, Three Hours after 
Marriage (17 17). The publication of two volumes of 
poems, in 1720, was an index of much higher gifts. 

The germ of the idea of The Beggar's Opera has 
usually been held to be a passage in Swift's letter 2 to 
Pope, 30 August 1 716: 'I believe . . . the Pastoral 
Ridicule is not exhausted; and that a Porter, Foot- 
man, or Chair-man's pastoral might do well. Or what 
think you of a Newgate Pastoral ? ' Later, when the 
suggestion came to Gay, he utilized the Newgate 
setting but preferred operatic drama to pastoral. 
According to Pope, Swift at first 'did not much like 
the project. As he [Gay] carried it on, he showed 
what he wrote to both of us ; and we now and then 

l Dean Swift's Literary Correspondence, 1741, p. 65. 
2 Ibid., pp. 9-10. 



xi PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 191 

gave a correction, or a word or two of advice, but it 
was wholly of his own writing. When it was done, 
neither of us thought it would succeed. We showed 
it to Congreve, who, after reading it over, said, "It 
would either take greatly, or be damned confound- 
edly.'" 1 

It was by no means wholly the novelty of a New- 
gate opera that made the success of The Beggar's 
Opera. Gay skilfully satirized courtiers and politi- 
cians, in particular, Sir Robert Walpole. ' Gay,' wrote 
William Cooke, 2 'by frequently comparing highway- 
men to courtiers, and mixing other political allusions, 
drew the attention of the public to the character of 
Sir Robert Walpole, then Prime Minister, who, like 
most other Prime Ministers, had a strong party 
against him, who constantly took care to make or fmcl 
a comparison between the two characters . . . The 
first song was thought to point to him — The name of 
Bob Booty, whenever mentioned, again raised the laugh 
against him : and the quarrelling scene between 
Peachum and Lockit, was so well understood at that 
time to allude to a recent quarrel between the two 
Ministers, Lord Townshend and Sir Robert, that the 
House was in convulsions of applause.' Swift 
wrote, 'We hear a Million of Stories about the Opera, 
of the Applause at the Song, That was levelled at me, 
when two great Ministers were in a Box together, 
and all the World staring at them.' 3 In other quar- 
ters, Gay's burlesque was seriously taken to heart. 

1 Spence, Anecdotes, Malone edition, 1820, p. 136. 

2 Memoirs of Charles Macklin, 1804, pp. 53-55. 

3 Dean Swift's Literary Correspondence, 1741, p. 66. 



192 



ENGLISH DRAMA 



It was reprehended as ' the most venemous allegorical 
libel against the Government that hath appeared for 
many years. . . . The satirical strokes upon Minis- 
ters, Courtiers, and great Men, in general, abound in 
every Part of this most insolent Performance.' l In 
popularizing political satire on the English stage Gay 
prepared the way for Fielding. 

The satire of The Beggar's Opera extended not 
merely to contemporary politics and society but to 
Italian opera and sentimental drama. In the Intro- 
duction, the Beggar, who gives his name to the opera, 
in presenting his piece to the Player, says : ' I have 
introduc'd the Similes that are in all your celebrated 
Operas: The Swallow, the Moth, the Bee, the Ship, 
the Flower, &c. Besides, I have a Prison Scene which 
the Ladies always reckon charmingly pathetick.' 
Perhaps Gay had in mind the sentimental scene in 
Newgate prison which opens the last act of Steele's 
Lying Lover. The double ending to Gay's work is a 
palpable hit at the conventional happy ending of 
sentimental drama and opera. Captain Macheath, 
confronted with an embarrassment of wives, gives 
himself up in despair to the officers. Hereupon the 
Player tells the Beggar that this will never do, for 
' this is a down-right deep Tragedy. The Catastrophe 
is manifestly wrong, for an Opera must end happily.' 
The Beggar admits that the objection 'is very just; 
and is easily remov'd. For you must allow, that in 
this kind of Drama, 'tis no matter how absurdly things 
are brought about. — So — you Rabble there — run 

■ x Watson Nicholson, The Struggle for a Free Stage in London, pp. 
49-So. 



PANTOMIME AND BALLAD OPERA 



193 



and cry a Reprieve — let the Prisoner be brought back 
to his Wives in Triumph.' Then adds the Player: 
'All this we must do, to comply with the Taste of the 
Town.' But the Beggar rejoins, 'Had the Play re- 
main' d, as I at first intended, it would have carried 
a most excellent Moral. 'Twould have shown that the 
lower Sort of People have their Vices in a degree as 
well as the Rich: And that they are punish' d for 
them.' No such excuse, however, could shield Gay 
from the serious attack of some solemn moralists. 
Sir John Fielding assured Hugh Kelly ' that ever since 
the first representation of this piece, there had been, 
on every successful run, a proportionate number of 
highwaymen brought to the office,' 1 and showed him 
the books by way of proof. To the same effect runs 
the testimony of Oulton 2 to its 'immoral tendency: 
as it was never played without encreasing the number 
of thieves about this metropolis.' 

The vein of social satire successfully exploited in 
The Beggar's Opera was deepened in its sequel, Polly. 
Its stage production was prohibited by the Lord 
Chamberlain, but the printed version attracted wide 
attention. Gay's Beggar had found it 'difficult to 
determine whether (in the fashionable Vices) the fine 
Gentlemen imitate the Gentlemen of the Road, or 
the Gentlemen of the Road the fine Gentlemen.' In 
Polly, Captain Macheath and his pirates move amid 
the corruptions of West Indian society, where the 
'poor Indian' is exalted into the 'noble savage.' The 
revolt against the taint of European civilization some- 

1 Cooke, Memoirs of Charles Macklin, p. 64. 

2 History of the Theatres of London, 1796, I, 25. 
o 



194 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, xi 

what suggests the passing mood of some stanzas 
in Locksley Hall, but with Gay the mood never 
settles down to Tennyson's conclusion. If it were 
possible to accept as a serious social creed Gay's 
satire of society, it might be held to exhibit some fore- 
shadowings of Rousseau's doctrines. But the sceva 
indignatio which had just fired Swift's Gulliver's 
Travels (1726) had only a mock echo in Gay. If Gay 
be concluded to have brought an indictment against 
the corruptions of civilized society, he was content 
to have the case laughed out of court. 

The Beggar's Opera entitles Gay to a permanent 
place in the history of English drama. Its ridicule 
of absurdities of sentimental drama and opera con- 
tinues the vein of his earlier piece, What-d'ye-call-it, 
and points toward such dramatic burlesques as 
Fielding's Tom Thumb and Carey's Chrononhotontho- 
logos. Its political satire anticipates Fielding's farces. 
In introducing 'ballad opera,' it set a popular fashion 
which Sheridan was ready to follow in The Duenna. 



CHAPTER XII 



The course of regular English drama during the 
early Georgian period did not run smooth. Against 
such powerful rivals as pantomime and ballad 
opera, comedy and tragedy struggled somewhat 
unsteadily. Colley Cibber's N on- Juror (17 17), Mrs. 
Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife (17 18), Steele's 
Conscious Lovers (1722), and Cibber's Provoked 
Husband (1728), a completed version of Vanbrugh's 
unfinished Journey to London, may serve to suggest 
the less serious types of drama. The development 
of tragedy may be noted in the works of some drama- 
tists not hitherto discussed. 

Edward Young (1683-1765), whose poetic power 
culminated, much later, in Night Thoughts, produced 
in Busiris (17 19), a successful blank-verse tragedy, 
and in The Revenge, a tragedy which held the stage 
for a century. A third tragedy, The Brothers, whose 
stage production had been abandoned on account of 
the author's religious scruples when he took orders, 
had a belated production, in 1753, for the benefit 
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 
In the picturesque accounts 1 of the disputes between 
author and actors over the performance, Young 

1 Dr. Doran, ' Their Majesties Servants? Annals of the English 
Stage, Lowe edition, II, 161-163. 

195 



196 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

is said to have protested against an objection to what 
he regarded as the most forcible line in the drama — 
'I will speak to you in thunder.' At all events, the 
line might well have been his dramatic motto. The 
violent action and swelling phrases of Busiris needed 
little heightening when Fielding set himself to travesty 
them in his burlesque tragedy, Tom Thumb. Young 
has often been said to follow French models, but the 
violence and bloodshed of his dramas reflect the 
freedom of the English stage rather than the restraint 
of classical tragedy. The Revenge, in its endeavour to 
portray 'the tumults of a Godlike mind,' suggests 
the heroic tragedy of the Restoration, while the 
conception of Zanga, the Moor, is doubtless drawn in 
part from Iago. The coarse epilogues to Young's 
plays recall, likewise, a practice of the earlier English 
stage which had survived Collier's attacks upon the 
immorality of the theatre. There is, then, marked 
kinship between Young's tragedies and earlier English 
drama. Judged independently as a dramatist, Young 
has, in general, violence, rather than vigour, of action, 
and heat, without warmth, of dramatic utterance. 

John Hughes (167 7-1 7 20), who had acquired 
literary recognition by papers in The Tatter and 
The Spectator, and had produced an opera, Catypso 
and Telemachus (17 12), won on the very night of 
his death genuine dramatic success with The Siege 
of Damascus (1720). Both Swift and Pope regarded 
him as a mediocre writer in prose and verse alike, 
but a certain dignity of style and setting may partly 
justify Duncombe's commendatory lines on The Siege 
of Damascus: 



xn VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 197 

No modern phrases in these scenes appear, 
Antiquity's more noble dress they wear. 

While Young inclined largely toward English 
dramatic models, James Thomson (1 700-1 748) 
lent the influence of his poetic reputation won in 
The Seasons to the cause of classical tragedy. In 
Sophonisba (1730), classical simplicity of plot is 
deadened by ponderous phrase. Massinissa's in- 
vocation, 'Oh, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, oh/ is 
remembered because of its waggish perversion to 
'Oh, Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, oh/ and 
by Fielding's parody in Tom Thumb, ' Oh ! Hunca- 
munca, Huncamunca, oh ! ' Yet Mrs. Oldfield, as hero- 
ine, succeeded for a time in commanding applause. 
More noteworthy is his collaboration with David 
Mallet in The Masque of Alfred (1740), performed at a 
fete given by the Prince of Wales, for to it Thomson 
contributed the famous ode, 'Rule Britannia. ' In 
Agamemnon (1738), Edward and Eleonora, rejected 
by the censor, and Tancred and Sigismunda (1745), 
Thomson relentlessly pursued the path of tragedy. 
A version of Coriolanus (1749) heroically struggles to 
compress the action in conformity with the dramatic 
unities, and emasculates its vigour. Thomson aimed 
to couch political and moral sentiments in chaste 
diction, but if at times 'High Rant is tumbled from his 
Gallery Throne/ * it only makes way for frigid medi- 
ocrity. He thought to reject 'the glittering false 
Sublime/ but the effort to banish glitter did not 
banish falsity from his tragedy. The soulless trag- 

1 Prologue to Tancred and Sigismunda. 



I 9 8 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

edies of Thomson and his like were appropriately 
exposed to the heartless ridicule of burlesque. 

The French influence upon English drama has con- 
stantly been found exerted in two ways — in classical 
dramatic theory and in the practice of such dramatists 
as Corneille and Racine. In both theory and practice 
French influence derived a new and powerful support 
from Voltaire. 1 In 1726, he began a residence of al- 
most three years in England which placed him in 
touch, rather than brought him into sympathy, with 
English drama. Cato he considered a masterpiece 
of classical tragedy ; yet, at least in one passage, he 
was forced to conclude that ' creative genius' such 
as Shakespeare's 'moves forward without guide, with- 
out art, without rule. It loses its way in its progress ; 
but it leaves far behind it everything which can boast 
only of reason and correctness.' 2 But so catholic 
an utterance as this would convey a wrong impression 
of Voltaire's habitual point of view. Taste, that 
touchstone of classical criticism, Voltaire deemed 
lacking in Shakespeare. Strangely silent as to 
Shakespeare's comedies, Voltaire readily found mon- 
strosities in his tragedies. ' Shakes pear/ he admitted, 
' boasted a strong, fruitful Genius : He was natural 
and sublime, but had not so much as a single Spark 
of good Taste, or knew one Rule of the Drama. ' 3 This, 
indeed, was the frequent judgment of those Restora- 
tion wits who had often to acknowledge Shakespeare's 



1 See for the fullest and most scholarly discussion of Voltaire : 
influence in England, T. R. Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire 

2 Quoted by Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, p. 52. 

3 Letters concerning the English Nation (translated), 1733, p. 166 



[re's J 



xii VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 199 

dramatic instinct at the very moment that they 
sought to improve his text. It was, in a word, the 
concession of classicism to the genius of romantic 
drama. 

When Voltaire set himself the difficult task of 
translating dramatic theory into practice, his classical 
taste showed the effect of English contagion. Not 
merely did he borrow in his own plays from Julius 
Ccesar, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Lear more 
freely than he was disposed to acknowledge, but he 
relaxed the rigorous precepts of classical drama in 
partial deference to English freedom of action. 
' France is not the only country where tragedies are 
written;' he wrote in a letter of 1735, 'and our taste, 
or rather our practice, of putting upon the stage 
nothing but love-dialogues does not please other 
nations. Our theatre is ordinarily devoid of action 
and of great interests.' * Fifteen years later, in a 
letter full of strictures on the barbarities of English 
tragedy, he admitted, ' 'Tis true we have too much of 
words, if you have too much of action, and perhaps 
the perfection of the Art should consist in a due mix- 
ture of the french taste and english energy.' 2 The 
French and English critical war, waged so long and 
so vigorously, resulted in concessions even by the 
leaders on both sides. 

To the influence of Voltaire's critical authority 
and to the indirect influence in England of the French 
production of his plays must now be added the direct 
influence of versions of Voltaire on the English 

1 Quoted by Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, p. 71. 

2 Quoted Ibid., p. 138. 



200 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

stage. William Duncombe's adaptation of Brutus 
(1734) proved a lukewarm tragedy, whose dramatic 
fire could not be stirred by the English innovation of 
permitting the death of the heroine on the stage. 
Duncombe's version brought upon Voltaire the charge 
of plagiarism from Lee's Restoration tragedy, Brutus. 1 
More friendly in tone, but hardly less definite in 
assertion of Voltaire's debt to English tragedy, was 
Colley Cibber's Prologue to Hill's Zara (1736; pri- 
vately presented, 1735), a version of Voltaire's Zaire: 

From English Plays, Zara's French Author fir'd, 
Confess'd his Muse, beyond herself, inspir'd ; 
From rack'd Othello's Rage, he rais'd his Style, 
And snatch'd the Brand, that lights his Tragick Pile. 

Aaron Hill (1685-1750), whose literary activity had 
already manifested itself in the libretto to Handel's 
opera, Rinaldo (1711), and in several tragedies, 2 was 
encouraged by his success in Zara, to produce in the 
same year another adaptation of Voltaire, Alzira. 
Hill's third adaptation from Voltaire, Merope (1749), 
failed, like its predecessor, to equal the success of Zara. 
One other adaptation of Voltaire on the English stage 
prior to 1750 may be mentioned — James Miller's 
version of Mahomet (1744). 3 Its Prologue contains 
further proof that Voltaire's debt to Shakespeare 
did not escape English eyes : 

1 Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, pp. 75-76. 

2 The Fatal Vision, or The Fall of Siam (17 16), The Fatal Ex- 
travagance, whose title fits more than one of Hill's works with fatal 
felicity, King Henry the Fifth, and Athelwold (1731), a revision of his 
Elfrid, or The Fair Inconstant. 

3 A note to the 'fourth edition, with new Improvements' (1766), 
of Mahomet the Imposter, says : ' the first four Acts composed by the 
Rev. Mr. Miller.'' 



xn VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 201 

Britons, these Numbers to yourselves you owe ; 
Voltaire hath Strength to shoot in Shakespeare's Bow. 

With English Freedom, English Wit he knew, 
And from the inexhausted Stream profusely drew. 

To trace further Voltaire's influence on English 
drama would be to carry the present chapter beyond 
its proper limits. Yet something may be said by 
way of present summary. The respect accorded to 
Voltaire's critical authority and the frequency of 
the English versions of his plays gave him marked 
influence upon English drama. Yet this influence j 
has sometimes been exaggerated. Many of his I 
plays, in their English version, met with but' 
moderate favour. Zara had a continuous run of 
fourteen nights, but its success was exceptional. 
Almost from the outset it was recognized that Vol- 
taire had borrowed freely from Shakespeare, and hence 
his plays could hardly be expected to conquer ulti- 
mately the native genius to whom he was much in- 
debted. Dramas of Shakespeare had far more fre- 
quent performance than had the English adaptations 
of Voltaire's plays, and, as the century advanced, 
the tide of English criticism set strongly in Shake- 
speare's favour. Critical editions of his works in- 
creased his influence with readers, and Garrick's 
masterly performances notably deepened Shake- 
speare's popularity on the stage. 

While English tragedy pursued its rather unevent- 
ful course during the second quarter of the eighteenth 
century, one radical departure from the usual types 
merits attention wholly out of proportion with its 



202 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

intrinsic literary value. This was the introduction 
of prose bourgeois tragedy in Lillo 's George Barnwell 
(1731). Domestic tragedy itself was, in a sense, no 
novelty. Apart from somewhat sporadic appearances 
in such Elizabethan dramas as Arden of Fever sham, A 
Yorkshire Tragedy, and Heywood's A Woman Killed 
with Kindness, definite examples of it had been fur- 
nished by Otway, Southerne, and Rowe. Further- 
more, as has already been shown, so-called ' senti- 
mental comedy' was in reality often semi- tragic 
in character. Though the trials and sorrows of or- 
dinary life did not, therefore, supply a wholly new 
dramatic motif, they found novel application in the 
form of tragedy now inaugurated. 

It is not surprising that George Lillo (1 693-1 739), 
when he turned from the trade of jeweller to which his 
father had brought him up, became the dramatist of 
bourgeois life. His first piece Silvia, or The Country 
Burial (1730) is a ballad opera in which virtue and 
vice blend rather coarsely. In The London Merchant, 
or The History of George Barnwell (1731), Lillo pro- 
duced a tragedy that stands as a landmark in the 
history of English drama. The domestic tragedies 
of Otway, Southerne, and Rowe seem rather to have 
depressed the aristocratic tone of tragedy than to 
have exalted its democratic character. Otway's Or- 
phan is more noticeable for the absence of distinc- 
tions of rank than for the presence of bourgeois 
elements. In Jane Shore, Rowe pictures the downfall 
of a woman of lower class, but the agent of her ruin is 
an aristocrat. Lillo deliberately set his piece in the 
surroundings of everyday citizen life. George Barnwell 



xii VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 203 

is the exaltation of trade. The virtue of the mer- 
chant's calling is second only to that of morality. 
Commercial cleanliness is next to godliness. At 
the opening of the third act, Thorowgood and True- 
man, whose names are significant, show how trade 
has ' promoted humanity' and how it is 'by mutual 
benefits diffusing mutual love from pole to pole.' 
The sacred object of the merchant's calling is thus 
defined : ' It is the industrious merchant's business 
to collect the various blessings of each soil and climate, 
and, with the product of the whole, to enrich his 
native country.' Charles Lamb 1 evinced distaste 
for Lillo's work, but Fielding, in Joseph Andrews, 
has an ironical fling at those who dislike Lillo because 
his expression is bourgeois — 'those low, dirty, last 
dying speeches, which a fellow in the city of Wap- 
ping, your Dillo or Lillo, what was his name, called 
tragedies.' 2 

George Barnwell is the story of the ruin of an ap- 
prentice by a courtesan. Millwood leads Barnwell 
steadily downward to theft, murder, and the gallows. 
The piece suggests Hogarth's plates — Trueman is 
the industrious, and Barnwell the idle, apprentice. 
Lillo based his play on an old ballad which presented 
Barnwell in a less sympathetic light. In the ballad, 
Barnwell offers of his own accord to rob his father and 
rich sister to meet Millwood's importunities, and him- 

1 On the Tragedies of Shakespeare. See discussion by A. W. Ward, 
edition {Belles-Lettres Series) of Lillo's London Merchant and Fatal 
Curiosity, Introduction, pp. xxviii-xxix. Ward's suggestive and 
scholarly study of Lillo is an important contribution to the history 
of English drama. 

2 Book III, Chapter X. 



204 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

self proposes his uncle's murder, which the Millwood 
of the play suggests. Lillo emphasizes Barnwell's 
repentance; the ballad makes but brief mention of 
the 'fear and sting of conscience' which prompt his 
written confession. The play enlarges the rather 
scant materials of the ballad by the introduction of 
the lovelorn Maria, of Trueman, and of Millwood's 
servants, Lucy and Blunt. 

The conscious moral aim of sentimental drama, 
apparent in the comedies of Cibber and Steele, re- 
appears in Lillo 's tragedy. He cared more to point 
a moral than to adorn the tale. As if the moralized 
justice of the denouement were insufficient, the 
dialogue is filled with such aphorisms as Thorow- 
good's, 'When vice becomes habitual, the very power 
of leaving it is lost.' The Beggar's Opera had been 
declared an incentive to vice, but there are contem- 
porary documents to prove that George Barnwell 
could reclaim a sinner. Lee Lewes quotes a long 
letter 1 telling of a youthful embezzler who was so 
struck by the similarity between his situation and 
that of Barnwell that he wished death, but was happily 
reclaimed by his father, became an eminent merchant, 
and annually presented to the actor Ross ten guineas 
as 'a tribute of gratitude from one who was highly 
obliged, and saved from ruin, by seeing Mr. Ross's 
performance of Barnwell.' 

Despite the weight of moralizing, Lillo 's play has 
marked unity and dramatic movement. Everything 
centres in Barnwell, and the plot unfolds clearly and 

1 Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewes . . . Written by Himself, 1805, IV, 
243-248. 



xii VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 205 

inevitably. So much, indeed, is sympathy enlisted 
for Barnwell as a man more sinned against than 
sinning that little compassion is felt for the murdered 
uncle, who is introduced only as a lamb led to the 
slaughter. The motive of the action does not always 
seem adequate, nor is the character portrayal consist- 
ent. Barnwell might seemingly have robbed his uncle 
without murdering him. Barnwell meets Millwood's 
solicitations with the simplicity of unsullied youth; 
but his immediate yielding to temptation cannot be 
forgiven on the score of ignorance, since his very words 
acknowledge guilt. The veneer of morality is super- 
ficial — a sort of bourgeois piety that yields almost 
without resistance. Yet certainly this is not the 
impression that Lillo sought to convey. Again, if 
Barnwell is so thoroughly under the spell of Millwood 
that he commits murder at her suggestion, it is 
questionable whether he would have left untouched 
the money which was his object. Stevenson's 
Markheim, who remains in the shop of the murdered 
dealer and gives himself up to the police, is hardly a 
case in point. Millwood is a more logical study in 
depraved passion. Lillo shows dramatic restraint in 
allowing the faithful Maria to survive Barnwell's 
death. Melodrama would have had her die of a 
broken heart just before the curtain-fall. 

Important as was the influence of George Barnwell 
upon the subject matter of English tragedy, it was no 
less important in its effect upon its language. Shake- 
speare's occasional employment of prose in tragedy 
does not alter the fact that Elizabethan tragedy is 
essentially poetic both in conception and in phras- 



206 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ing. Lillo attempted to give to domestic tragedy the 
vocabulary of everyday life. To the modern reader 
the effect is often grotesque. Highly stilted passages, 
unnatural inversions of phrase, rhymed ' scene tags/ 
often not limited to single couplets and sometimes 
not confined to the last scenes of each act, show that 
Lillo 's language has by no means thrown off all the 
shackles of old-school tragedy. Yet it is idle to judge 
Lillo's prose by the standards of a modern drama 
that has been affected by Ibsen. Artificial as was his 
expression, Lillo had at bottom the same idea as 
Wordsworth in seeking to tell a simple story in the 
prose language of ordinary life. In justice to Lillo 
it may be remembered that his dialogue does not 
seem much more artificial than the language of 
Richardson's novels. The age was accustomed to 
overcharged phrasing in drama, as it was to the 'grand 
manner' in acting. Lillo's conception of natural 
dialogue, however crude, marks a step forward 
toward modern realism. It was this doubtless that 
led Fielding, who was so ready to burlesque the 
tragedies of Young and Thomson and to turn away 
from the conventional moralizing of Richardson in 
the novel, to confess appreciation of Lillo. Even 
Pope, who attended the first performance, though he 
deemed the dialogue too stilted, found that Lillo 
had only occasionally been led ' into a poetical lux- 
uriancy, affecting to be too elevated for the simplicity 
of the subject.' 1 Yet if much is to be forgiven to 
Lillo, there is no doubt that at times he sinned greatly. 

1 The Lives of the Poets of Great-Britain and Ireland. By Mr. 
[Theophilus] Cibber and other Hands, 1753, V, 339. 






xn VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 207 

The uncle's soliloquies (III, 6 and 7) go far to justify 
his murder. They bear the mark of the conventional 
rhetoric of tragedy, with little gain in their substitu- 
tion of unpoetic prose for prosaic verse. If the old 
shackles of verse tragedy have been broken, the marks 
of the fetters remain visible. 

The importance of George Barnwell is not an inven- 
tion of recent dramatic criticism. Though the first 
performance of the play did not occur until late in 
June, it achieved some twenty performances during 
the summer season, and became a stock play at 
Drury Lane. It was often acted at holiday seasons, 
was revived by Charles Kemble, in 1796, and its 
story was retold in the form of a novel, by T. S. Surr 
(1798), which had various editions. France, Holland, 
and Germany felt Lillo's influence. Diderot paid him 
high tribute and in his own plays introduced on 
the French stage the 'tragedie domes tique et bour- 
geoises Lessing, in turn, through his translation 
of Diderot's plays, and through his adoption of The 
London Merchant as the model for his Miss Sara 
Sampson (1755), brought German drama under the 
influence of Lillo. Not merely English, but Continen- 
tal drama, found in Lillo a powerful leader. 1 

In The Christian Hero (1735), Lillo continued to 
moralize tragedy, but deserted prose and the 
characters of lowly rank to 'sing a pious hero, and a 
patriot king.' With a scene set in Albania, with the 

1 For further discussion of Lillo's influence on Continental drama, 
see the present writer's Chapter IV, in Volume X, of the Cambridge 
History of English Literature, and especially A. W. Ward's edition of 
Lillo already cited. 



208 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dramatis persona divided between Turks and Chris- 
tians, Lillo seems to have lapsed into the familiar 
conventions of tragedy. Much more important is 
Fatal Curiosity: A True Tragedy of Three Acts (1736). 
Though Lillo retains blank verse, in his hands a 
clumsy instrument, he turns again to domestic 
tragedy. Old Wilmot, impelled by his wife to seek 
a desperate remedy for their poverty, kills the stranger 
that is within their gates, only to find that he has mur- 
dered his son whom ' fatal curiosity ' has led to conceal 
his identity. With something of the Greek concep- 
tion, destiny dominates the tragedy. Thus Fatal Curi- 
osity is, as Ward has clearly pointed out, 1 'an early 
experiment in a species to which the Germans, who 
alone cultivated it to any considerable extent, have 
given the name of S chicks alstragodie — the tragedy of 
destiny.' Translation and imitation brought it into 
influence upon German drama. Upon English drama 
its influence lay not in the development of the Greek 
idea of tragedy, but in its domestic character. ' From 
lower life we draw our scene's distress,' runs a line in 
the Prologue. 

Marina, a three-act drama in which blank verse 
yields to prose in the needlessly coarse brothel scenes, 
is based on Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The end shows 
'Virtue preserv'd from fell destruction's blast,' but 
the means hardly justify the end. Three of Lillo's 
dramatic works were published after his death — 
Britannia and Batavia, a somewhat late survival of 
the m&sque, Elmerick, or Justice Triumphant, a tragedy 
in blank verse, and Arden of Fevers ham, an adaptation 
of Elizabethan domestic tragedy. 

1 Lillo, Introduction, p. 1. 



xn VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 209 

Lillo's importance in the history of English drama 
depends primarily on George Barnwell. Artificial 
as his work may appear to modern taste, he set in 
motion powerful forces that pointed toward natural 
tragedy. In attempting 'to show, In artless strains, a 
tale of private woe, ' he consciously divested tragedy 
of its traditional deference to rank and title and 
to the ceremonious dignity of verse form. Tragedy 
still needed emancipation from sentimentalized 
morality. But if Lillo accepted some conventions 
of the sentimental school, he was none the less a 
pioneer in English drama. He animated domestic 
drama, and in the adoption of prose led the way to 
prose melodrama and tragedy. 

The marked success of George Barnwell must not 
be mistaken for proof of the dominance of domestic 
tragedy thereafter on the English stage. Year after 
year, the London theatres continued to produce a 
remarkable variety of dramas, from classical tragedy 
to nondescript farce. Genest's lists show, if not the 
survival of the fittest, at least a remarkable survival 
of earlier plays that still proved, for one reason or 
another, theatrically effective. The season following 
George Barnwell, for example, saw performances of 
various plays of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, 
Etherege, Otway, Southerne, Congreve, Vanbrugh, 
Farquhar, Addison, Steele, Mrs. Centlivre, and many 
others. Yet Lillo's continued success had its influence 
on other playwrights. Charles Johnson, a minor 
dramatist who usually had his ear to the ground, 
probably fashioned his moralized tragedy Caelia, 
or The Perjured Lover (1732), after Lillo's pattern. 



2io ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Wronglove is a Lothario who repents after he has 
been fatally wounded in a duel, while the woman he 
has wronged dies of a broken heart. Fielding's 
Epilogue mocks the distressed heroine, but the play 
itself is a sentimentalized domestic tragedy. 

The most conspicuous follower of Lillo was Edward 
Moore (1712-1757). Lillo had been a jeweller's 
apprentice; Moore, like Gay, was brought up as 
apprentice to a mercer. It is significant that the 
aristocratic preferences of tragedy were set aside 
by playwrights whose origin was as humble as 
their dramatic themes. Like Gay, Moore was 
something of a fabulist, showing in his Fables for the 
Female Sex the conscious moral aim which dominates 
his important play. Of his early dramatic efforts, 
The Foundling (1748), a comedy in which has been 
detected some resemblance to Steele's Conscious 
Lovers, gave to Macklin, in the part of the foppish 
Faddle, an opportunity to mimic an ' agreeable 
rattle' of the day named Russell. In Gil Bias (1751), 
comedy is darkened with an underplot involving a 
scheme of assassination, but the author's strong tragic 
and moral tendencies found fullest expression in 
The Gamester (1753). 

Moore dramatizes a new commandment, 'Thou 
shalt not gamble.' Addison had already attacked 
gambling in The Spectator, and Pope had laughed at 
ombre playing in The Rape of the Lock. Draper, 
in an unimportant comedy, The Spendthrift (1731), 
had introduced a young prodigal ruined by gaming, 
but had finally reconciled him to his father and 
mated him to his faithful Jenny. Moore, however, 



xn VOLTAIRE'S INFLUENCE 21 1 

strikes no glancing blow at gambling. All his energy 
centres in one relentless attack which gives unity to 
his tragedy. Without halt The Gamester advances 
to its fatal conclusion. At times tragedy stoops to 
melodrama. Surprise, instead of expectation, is 
the motive when Lewson appears after the supposed 
murder. Again, in the opening scene of the last act, 
Bates recounts the murder to Stukely with no hint 
that he is inventing the whole story. But if the 
appeal is made sometimes to theatrical effect rather 
than to the fundamental motives of tragic action, 
Moore has escaped some melodramatic pitfalls. 
Remembering, perhaps, Lillo's restraint in not dispos- 
ing of Maria in the culmination of his tragedy, 
he does not allow Mrs. Beverley to expire on her 
husband's corpse. Less happy, doubtless, is the sup- 
pression of actual gambling scenes on the stage. In 
failing to show his character directly under the spell 
of the gambling passion, Moore seems to have sacri- 
ficed a situation that would have strengthened not 
"merely the drama itself but its acting possibilities. 
The career of the gambler is shown by effect rather 
th^n_1by cause. The actual gambler's life is seen 
only in the background. The characters show more 
dramatic power than Lillo's. Jarvis, the faithful 
servant, with his offers of money, recalls Orlando's 
Adam : ' I have a little Money, Madam ; it might have 
been more, but I have lov'd the Poor. All that I have 
is yours' (I, 1). Moore is not without faults in 
dramatic construction, but there is a certain im- 
pressiveness in his main structural outline, and a 
certain resolute energy in the execution of his design. 



212 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. xn. 

Moore's prose is an improvement over Lillo's, 
yet is by no means colloquial. There is none of the 
ease and naturalness of the best dialogue of comic 
dramatists. Tragedy inclines naturally toward a 
more elevated style than comedy, but Moore has 
not mastered the lesson of simplicity. The result is 
something between Lillo's inverted and quasi-poetic 
prose and the language of ordinary life. 

Moore's name is closely linked with that of David 
Garrick. His plays were produced at Drury Lane, 
with Garrick in the leading roles. Garrick was the 
Beverley of The Gamester, wrote its Prologue, and, 
according to the testimony of Da vies, 1 supplied 
part of the dialogue of the play, especially in the scene 
between Lewson and Stukely in the fourth «act. It 
is significant in the history of the English stage that 
the mid-eighteenth century found its dominant in- 
fluence not in the playwright but in the actor. 

1 Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, 'New Edition,' 1780, I, 
166-167. 






CHAPTER XIII 

FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 

The prestige of conventional English tragedy, 
somewhat disturbed by Lillo's bold innovations, 
was further shaken by the destructive force of bur- 
lesque. The Rehearsal had turned the laugh against 
heroic tragedy; Fielding and his fellows ridiculed 
the absurdities of contemporary eighteenth-century 
tragedy. John Gay had already pointed the way with 
his What-d'ye-call-it (1715), burlesquing especially 
Otway's Venice Preserved, and had in The Beggar's 
Opera satirized impartially Italian opera, senti- 
mental drama, and contemporary politics. Yet 
neither Gay's nor Fielding's influence on English 
drama was confined to the negative force of burlesque. 
The Beggar's Opera presented in ballad opera a 
positive dramatic type. Fielding did not confine 
himself to ridicule of pompous tragedy, but in many 
pieces helped to establish the popularity of short 
dramatic satire. With him farce dared to hold its 
own with five-act formal drama. 

The long dramatic record of Henry Fielding 
(1 707-1 754) began, some two months before he came 
of age, with the production at Drury Lane of Love in 
Several Masques (1728). This comedy of the Con- 
greve type, if its characters somewhat betoken the 
'raw and unexperienced pen' which its Preface 

213 



214 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

modestly admits, has considerable sprightliness of 
dialogue. Cibber's Provoked Husband had just 
achieved a run of twenty-eight consecutive nights, 
and The Beggar's Opera was in the opening weeks of 
its phenomenal success, yet Fielding obtained a 
fair hearing. Two years later he launched forth on the 
flood of dramatic activity. Though some of his early 
pieces like The Temple Beau (1730) and Rape upon 
Rape, 1 or The Justice Caught in his own Trap (1730) are 
five-act comedies, Fielding seems for the most part 
to have followed the advice which he puts into 
Witmore's mouth in his Author's Farce (1730) : 
'When the theatres are puppets-shows, and the 
comedians ballad-singers; when fools lead the town, 
would a man think to thrive by his wit? If thou 
must write, write nonsense, write operas, write 
Hurlothrumbos.' 2 With a reminiscence of The Re- 
hearsal, The Author's Farce includes the rehearsal of 
a puppet-show by an impecunious author, Luckless, 
who at times suggests Fielding himself. The scene 
at the Court of Nonsense, introducing such characters 
as Signior Opera, Sir Farcical Comic, Don Tragedio, 
and Monsieur Pantomime, obviously satirizes popular 
theatrical taste. But Fielding did not confine his 
satire to generalities. Hits at Johnson, the author of 
Hurlothrumbo, at 'Orator Henley,' and possibly at 

1 Another edition (also 1730) gives the main title as The Cojfee- 
House Politician, but retains Rape upon Rape as a running-title in 
the text. 

2 Quotations in this chapter are from W. E. Henley's edition of 
The Complete Works of Fielding, Vols. I-V. The dates on the fac- 
simile title-pages there reproduced naturally do not always coincide 
with those of the first stage productions. 



xm FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 21 5 

Wilks and Cibber open up the vein of personal satire 
which he later exploited to the full. 

Most entertaining of Fielding's early dramatic 
work is Tom Thumb, first produced in two acts, in 
1730, and then expanded to three acts as The Tragedy 
of Tragedies, or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the 
Great. . . With the Annotations of H. Scriblerus Secundus. 
This admirable burlesque hits such vulnerable parts of 
regular tragedy as its conventional opening passages, 
its heroic themes of love and valour, its pompous 
phrases and artificial rhymed similes. The tragedy 
Ghost passes from the sublime to the ridiculous in 
the apparition of Tom Thumb's dead father, the 
classical sonority of Thomson's 'Oh, Sophonisba, 
Sophonisba, oh ' is parodied in ' Oh ! Huncamunca, 
Huncamunca, oh!' and the solution by massacre is 
outdone by half-a-dozen consecutive murders in as 
many lines, followed by the suicide of the King. 
Not merely contemporary tragedy but dramatic 
criticism is burlesqued. A long prefactory essay that 
pretends to seek authority in Aristotle and Horace, 
and elaborate paraphernalia of mock critical and 
explanatory notes, embellish the satire. To the 
line, 'The mighty Thomas Thumb victorious comes,' 
this note is appended: 'Dr. B[entle]y reads: The 
mighty Tall-mast Thumb. Mr. D[enni]s : The mighty 
Thumbing Thumb. Mr. T[heobal]d reads: Thun- 
dering. I think Thomas more agreeable to the 
great simplicity so apparent in our Author.' It is 
a mocking echo of the critical controversies over 
Shakespeare that had begun to multiply since the 
first critical edition by Rowe in 1709. In the notes, 



2l6 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

likewise, Fielding's hits are specifically aimed not 
merely at recent tragedies like Cato, Young's Busiris, 
and Fen ton's popular Mariamne (1723), but at the 
theories of Corneille and the practice of Dry den, 
Banks, and Lee. Tom Thumb had been anticipated by 
The Rehearsal and was to be surpassed by The Critic, 
but it holds its place as one of the few permanently 
noteworthy burlesques in English drama. 

The Covent-Garden Tragedy (1732) continues in 
part the burlesque method of Tom Thumb, but the 
manner is coarsened. The mock preface to Tom 
Thumb is here replaced by 'Prolegomena,' purporting 
to be a collection of critiques upon the tragedy, per- 
haps the most significant suggestion being that the 
characters of Lovegirlo and Kissinda 'are poor 
imitations of the characters of Pyrrhus and Androm- 
ache in The Distrest Mother, as Bilkum and Stor- 
mandra are of Orestes and Hermione.' In thus at- 
tempting to ridicule Ambrose Philips by degrading 
tragedy to the stews of Co vent Garden, the keen 
point of Fielding's satire becomes blunt with coarse use. 
y The real spirit of Tom Thumb was more genuinely 
revived by Henry Carey (d. 1743) in Chrononhoton- 
thologos : Being the Most Tragical Tragedy, that ever was 
Tragediz'd by any Company of Tragedians (1734). 
Carey was the author of several operas and of the 
popular ballad Sally in Our Alley. The gift of phrase, 
which nicknamed Ambrose Philips 'Namby-pamby,' 
is apparent in Carey's burlesque from the opening 
speech of Rigdum-Funnidos : 

Aldiborontiphoscophornio ! 

Where left you Chrononhotonthologos ? 



xni FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 217 

to the death of the ' Faithful Bombardinion.' The 
' tragedy groan' with which the survivors conclude 
the piece might properly have been invoked at such 
earlier phrases as : 

His cogitative Faculties immers'd 
In Cogibundity of Cogitation. 

Carey's burlesque opera, The Dragon of Wantley 
(1737), hits at the absurdities of formal opera. 
While Fielding and Carey thus out-Heroded Herod 
they, like Lillo, in reality promoted sanity in English 
drama. Tom Thumb is the ironic expression of that 
revolt against conventional English tragedy which 
Fielding phrased seriously in his Prologue to Lillo 's 
Fatal Curiosity: 

No fustian hero rages here to-night ; 
No armies fall, to fix a tyrant's right. 

Fielding was a prolific playwright. In addition 
to the regular comedies and the burlesques already 
mentioned, he wrote many short farces. Some of 
these, like his early Lottery 1 and An Old Man Taught 
Wisdom (1735), are reenforced with popular music, 
light ditty, and topical song. In The Grub-Street 
Opera (1731), where mischief -making Master Owen 
courts the maid-servants, and in The Intriguing 
Chambermaid (1734), Fielding was unconventional 
enough to give prominence to servants in his dramatis 
personce, thus anticipating Townley's well-known 
farce, High Life Below Stairs (1759). 2 The frequent 

1 Genest, III, 328, gives 1 January, 1732, as ' seemingly 1st time.' 
2 In 1732, an opera called The Footman dealt chiefly with servants 

who, as in Townley's farce, assume the names of their masters and 

mistresses. See Genest, III, 356. 



2l8 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

interpolations of song and the adoption of the three- 
act form show Fielding's independence both of the 
spirit and structure of formal drama. The Letter 
Writers (1731), an outspoken farce in which young 
Jack Commons comes to town 'resolved to take one 
swing in the charming plains of iniquity ' before being 
received into Holy Orders, The Debauchees (1732), 
a comedy which coarsely sets forth the exposure of a 
lewd Jesuit priest, and Don Quixote in England (1734), 
a comedy loosely sketched at Leyden, in i728^and 
enlarged with some satirical ' scenes concerning our 
elections' and some fifteen songs, alike adopt the 
three-act form. The Modern Husband (1732) boasts, 
in the Prologue, a reversion ' to nature and to truth ' 
and a moral purpose which it is difficult to detect in 
five acts that recount how 'A willing cuckold sells 
his willing wife.' The considerable success of his 
adaptation from Moliere's Le Medecin Malgre Lui, 
entitled The Mock Doctor (1732), led Fielding to a 
more important production, The Miser (1733), 
1 taken from Plautus and Moliere,' which won the 
praise of Voltaire and the plaudits of Drury Lane 
audiences. An ill-fated comedy, The Universal Gal- 
lant (1735), and an unpublished piece called Deborah 
(acted but once, 1733), complete the varied dramatic 
record of Fielding prior to his important dramatic 
satire, Pasquin. 

In contrast with the great Patent Theatres, Drury 
Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields, the 'Little Theatre 
in the Haymarket' had followed a desultory career. 
Since its opening, in 1720, motley had been its usual 
wear. French comedians, acrobats, rope-dancers, 



xm FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 219 

and tumblers had taken their turn on the boards. 
Genest's fitful records of its early performances show 
productions of burlesque opera, rough comedy, and 
such medleys as Hurlothrumbo , or the Supernatural 
(1729). In this the author, a dancing master named 
Johnson, himself acted the part of Lord Flame, 
' speaking sometimes in one key, and sometimes in 
another, sometimes dancing, sometimes fiddling, 
and sometimes walking upon stilts.' * With the 
production of The Author's Farce and Tom Thumb, 
in 1730, the Haymarket secured a succession of pieces 
by Fielding, and begins to demand more atten- 
tion. In 1733, it had the brief eclat of performances 
by the leading actors who had seceded from Drury 
Lane. Yet it had acquired but slender dramatic 
tradition when, in 1736, Fielding, now its manager, 
convulsed the town with more than forty performances 
of Pasquin. 

Pasquin is 'a Drama tick Satire on the Times.' In 
introducing rehearsals of both a mock comedy and 
a mock tragedy it elaborates the device of The Re- 
hearsal already used in The Author's Farce. Like 
some of Fielding's other farces, it seems to have sup- 
plied Sheridan with hints for The Critic? Trapwit's 
comedy boldly satirizes political bribery and corrup- 
tion, pointing at Sir Robert Walpole and the creed 
now commonly attributed to him in his supposed 
generalization that every man has his price. The 
burlesque tragedy presents 'The Life and Death 

1 Genest, III, 247. 

2 See, for specific parallel passages, the present writer's Major 
Dramas of Sheridan, Introduction, pp. lxxxviii-xci. 



220 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

of Queen Common Sense/ and, for that matter, her 
resurrection, for it is her Ghost who finally drives 
Ignorance off the stage. Upon this, Fustian, the 
tragic poet, remarks that ' this is almost the only play 
where she [Common Sense] has got the better lately/ 
Though Fielding himself was ready enough to cater 
to the popular taste for entertainments, he puts into 
the mouth of Fustian (Act V) a hit at pantomime 
which might have satisfied even Colley Cibber. 
Tumble-down Dick, or Phaeton in the Suds (1736) 1 
burlesqued a Drury Lane production, The Fall of 
Phaeton, and in the dedication of the piece to Mr. 
John Lun [Rich's stage name] hit at Rich's unsuccess- 
ful production at Covent Garden of Marforio, a satire 
on Pasquin. While London was still laughing at 
Pasquin, Fielding produced Lillo's Fatal Curiosity, 
and as at first this tragedy met with but moderate 
success, he added it to his own Historical Register for 
1736 in the following season, thus securing for it 
further hearing. 

During the season of 1737, Fielding developed to 
the full at the Haymarket his novel method of dra- 
matic satire. The Historical Register for 17 j6 (acted 
1737) introduced political satire in allusions to Sir 
Robert Walpole in the character of Quidam, theatrical 
satire in hits at Colley and Theophilus Cibber, at 
the controversy between Mrs. Clive and Mrs. Cibber 
as to the part of Polly, and at the dilemmas of the 
'Green Room,' and social satire, as in the parting 

1 1 am indebted to Professor W. L. Cross for copies of contem- 
porary playbills of April, 1736, which disprove the usual assignment 
of this play to 1737. 



xni FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 221 

fling at the ladies' literary clubs which seem to have 
espoused the rival causes of Shakespeare and of Beau- 
mont and Fletcher. One of the most vigorous 
scenes, that of the auction, introduces, as Mr. Hen, 
the familiar figure of Cock the Auctioneer. Nor 
did Fielding spare himself, for in Eurydice Hissed, or 
a Word to the Wise, he dealt with the failure of his 
own farce Eurydice at Drury Lane. 

The reckless freedom of Fielding's satire was carried 
too far for its own safety. Whatever the immediate 
provocation, it was largely due to Fielding that the 
law took cognizance of the lawlessness of dramatic 
satire. In March, 1735, Sir John Barnard had in- 
terested himself in the House of Commons in the 
question of restricting the theatres, and, though his 
bill was finally abandoned, the theatrical situation 
came up for discussion. This occurred before Pas- 
quin and the Historical Register had dealt their satiri- 
cal attacks, especially upon Sir Robert Walpole. 
The immediate stimulus to the Licensing Act is usually 
held to have been an abusive piece, called The Golden 
Rump, which led Giffard, manager of the Goodman's 
Fields Theatre, to consult Walpole with immediate 
results. According to some accounts, 1 even this 
piece is to be attributed to Fielding. In any event, 
there is little reason to doubt that Walpole recognized 
in Fielding his most dangerous foe. c Religion, Laws, 
Government, Priests, Judges and Ministers,' de- 
clared Cibber 2 bitterly, 'were all laid flat, at the 

1 Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Secotid, 
second edition, revised, 1847, I, 13-14, footnote. 

2 Apology, I, 287. 



222 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Feet of this Herculean Satyrist ! This Drawcansir in 
Wit, that spared neither Friend nor Foe ! ' The 
Licensing Act of 1737 limited the metropolitan 
theatres to two, and brought plays, prologues, and 
epilogues under direct legal authority. It is true that 
the Lord Chamberlain had already prohibited some 
dramatic pieces, 1 notably Gay's Polly, but with the 
passage of this act and the appointment of a licenser 
under his jurisdiction, in 1738, the Lord Chamberlain 
was formally invested with the censorship of the stage. 
Popular indignation at the restrictions of the Licensing 

Act found vent in a. riot at tfrp flttprnptpHj^prfnrrnanrp 

at the Haymarket, in October, 1738, of a F rench com- 
pany~^jHxnnedia^sjwho ^ougjitto~ nTl the place de- 
barredtcTEngiisE actors. According to the account in 
The Gentleman 7 s Magazine (Oct. 1738), 'when the 
Bill appeared' for the first performance of these 
French actors, l with the Word authority placed at 
Top, the Publick was stung to the Quick, and 
thought themselves concerned to exert that Liberty 
they enjoy, and to resent the Affront put upon them 
by the Chamberlain.' Henceforth the London stage 
knew the authority of the censor. 

If the Licensing Act was designed to check the 
reckless satire of Fielding, it was successful. The 
Haymarket productions of 1737 mark the virtual 
close of Fielding's theatrical activity. Miss Lucy in 
Town (1742), a short farce with songs, for which he 
declared he was but partly responsible, a five-act 
comedy, The Wedding-Day (1743), in which Garrick* 

1 The Restaur ation of King Charles the Second had been 'forbidden 
to be acted/ in 1732. Genest, III, 357-358. 



xni FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 223 

took a leading part, and the posthumous comedy, 
The Fathers, or The Good-Natured Man (1778), 1 whose 
chief interest perhaps lies in the subtitle and in the 
Prologue which appeals for indulgence to the author 
on the score of his great novels, are of little signifi- 
cance, and represent largely early dramatic material. 
Perhaps it was not without relief that Fielding turned 
from the theatre. He had written in haste, and his 
later comment that he 'left off writing for the stage 
when he ought to have begun' 2 seems to show that he 
repented at leisure. In Eurydice Hissed, Honestus 
bids the author whose 'farce without contrivance, 
without sense' may win accidental popularity 

Think how you will be read in after- times, 
When friends are not, and the impartial judge 
Shall with the meanest scribbler rank your name. 

The author of Tom Thumb and Pasquin can hardly 
suffer such a fate ; yet his worst pieces sink to sheer 
mediocrity. 

Fielding's dramatic work forms a period of literary 
apprenticeship. It bears to his great novels somewhat 
the same relationship as do Thackeray's burlesques 
to his novels. Fielding and Thackeray alike show in 
their early work vivacity, humour, satire. Yet bur- 
lesque is but negative, and their positive genius awaited 
full expression in the mature character portrayal of 
their novels. Nevertheless, Fielding is neither a 
negligible nor a wholly destructive force in English 
drama. Careless in conception and hasty in execu- 

1 Genest, VI, 77, under 30 November, 1778. 
2 Quoted by Austin Dobson, Fielding, p. 58. 



224 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

tion as was most of his dramatic work, its influence 
was significant. While regular comedy w as being 
inc reasingl y se ntimentalized and tragedy mora lized, 
hej[e ^satirical _iarr,e anri^urlesciuje^lrample on the 
five-act form ula an d^ conventio nal spirit of formal 
drama. He was esse ntially the playwright of his o wn 
day. Even Lillo. who set h is f ace aga innt nrintnrrR tic 
tragedy, still conceded the historic background in 
assigning, nominally at least, an Elizabethan setting 
to The London Merchant, in placing Fatal Curiosity in 
the reign of James I, and in choosing Arden of Fever- 
sham as the theme of 'an historical tragedy.' Field- 
ing turned to the immediate present. Contemporary 
society, drama, and politics gave him themes ready 
to hand. Though he paid some heed to regular 
comedy, especially in early plays that follow Con- 
greve's general model, he was peculiarly at home in 
satirical farce. He developed Gay's 'local hits' 
at politicians of the day, and, like his follower Samuel 
Foote, carried personal allusion and innuendo to 
daring extremes. Without the range of a great 
comic dramatist, Fielding heightened farce with the 
zest of contemporary caricature. 

Although the public made hue and cry over the Li- 
censing Act, the real danger to English drama of that 
day lay deeper than in the restriction of its freedom 
of speech. In point of fact, Samuel Foote was soon 
to show that not merely liberty, but license, of 
phrase could be compassed in defiance of authority. 
T he vital peril to "F^cli"* 1 d r flrrm hy in its den jJ a tH 
o f mediocrity. Constant bufferings from a lmost 
every quarter had enfeebled its vitality. Italian 



xm FIELDING AND THE LICENSING ACT 225 

opera, pantomime, burlesque, ballad opera, farce, 
and spectacle had sorely wasted the ranks of regular 
comedy and tragedy. Against such dangerous rivals 
'legitimate drama' could muster but sorry force. 
Comedy showed frequent traces of Restoration im- 
morality, but hardly a sign of its comic power, while 
the sentiment which Steele had substituted had de- 
clined into flabby sentimentality. Tragedy wavered 
between respect for classical conventions and the 
need of larger life. If it followed Continental example, 
it was apt to catch the chill formality, but not the 
stately spirit, of classical drama ; if it followed Eng- 
lish dramatic models, it was more apt to imitate their 
crudities and exaggerations than their native strength. 
To the rivals which it encountered on the actual 
stage must now be added a new and more subtle 
rival off the boards. 

The Queen Anne age, in which the periodical essay 
had reached the height of popularity, had passed when 
Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Gulliver's Travels (1726) 
fired the fancy of English readers. With the advent 
of Richardson's Pamela (1740) the English novel 
began its great period of literary dominance. Field- 
ing himself, from minor dramatist, became major 
novelist in Joseph Andrews (1742), beginning, in 
accordance with his dramatic schooling, with burlesque 
of Richardson's novel, but rising out of it into the 
'human comedy' of Parson Adams. As one looks 
askance at the playbills of the new dramas of the 
mid-eighteenth century, it is necessary to recall that, 
within the four years from 1747 to 1751, appeared 
Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe, Smollett's Roderick 

Q 



226 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, xiii 

Random and Peregrine Pickle, and Fielding's Tom 
Jones (1749), and that the first volumes of Sterne's 
Tristram Shandy were soon to follow (17 59-1 760). 
In the decline of drama the novel had found its 
opportunity. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE GARRICK ERA 

Despite the formidable foes that threatened Eng- 
lish drama in the middle of the eighteenth century, 
two powerful forces helped to sustain the vitality of 
the theatre. These were the strong repertory of 
' stock plays' which maintained the continuity of 
dramatic tradition and the genius of actors able to 
triumph not merely in the successes of the past but 
even in the mediocre productions of contemporary 
drama. Unlike other forms of literature, the drama 
is primarily dependent upon the actual conditions 
of its presentation. Yet this very circumstance 
which has often militated against the dramatist 
proved in this crisis his surest support. It was the 
age of the player, not of the playwright. The mid- 
eighteenth-century dramatic period is the 'Garrick 
era.' 

Though the record of David Garrick (17 17-17 79) 
belongs primarily to theatrical annals, it is vitally 
connected with the course of English dramatic his- 
tory. Apart from his own dramatic productions, 
Garrick in an extraordinary measure increased the 
popularity of Shakespeare, besides partly redeeming 
his texts from current perversions. The natural 
methods of his art affected not merely the old school 
of acting but the artificiality of the drama itself. 

227 



228 ENGLISH DRAMA 



CHAP. 



The son of a recruiting army captain, David Garrick 
appropriately made his venture as an actor about the 
age of eleven, in the part of Serjeant Kite, in Far- 
quhar's Recruiting Officer. There was little chance 
that Garrick, who had come under the tutelage of 
Samuel Johnson, would long continue in his uncle's 
trade of wine merchant. In 1740, his mythological 
skit, Lethe, was produced at Drury Lane, and, with 
various alterations, long held a place in the repertory. 
Though Garrick acted, in the summer of 1741, with 
a travelling company at Ipswich, he was refused 
admission to the companies of Drury Lane and Covent 
Garden. But on 19 October, 1741, he made his 
historic triumph at Goodman's Fields. In deference 
to the Licensing Act, the playbill announced, some- 
what guardedly, that there would be performed 'A 
Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music, y between 
whose parts would be presented 'an Historical Play, 
called the Life and Death of King Richard the Third.' 
Garrick awoke to find himself famous. London 
flocked to Goodman's Fields. The plague that fell 
upon the rival houses was the 'Garrick fever.' Quin, 
the chief tragedian of the old school, recognized the 
passing of the old order of acting by declaring that, 
'if the young fellow was right, he, and the rest of the 
players, had been all wrong.' l 

There is no need to detail here the familiar episodes 
of Garrick's life — the menage with Peg Wofhngton 
and Charles Macklin, the dissensions among the 
Drury Lane actors and the consequent breach with 
Macklin, Garrick's appearances at Covent Garden 
1 Thomas Davies, Memoirs of Garrick, 'New Edition/ 1780, I, 44. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 229 

and at Dublin, and his final installation, with Lacy, 
as manager of Drury Lane in 1747. It will suffice 
to indicate some of the ways in which his dominance 
as actor and manager affected the course of English 
drama. Highly suggestive is the picture by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds which shows Garrick torn between 
the rival Muses of Tragedy and Comedy. From 
Richard III he turned to the part of Clodio, in Cib- 
ber's early comedy, Love makes a Man; from Chamont 
in Otway's Orphan to Jack Smatter, in Dance's 
dramatization of Richardson's Pamela; from char- 
acters in his own Lethe and in his farce, The Lying 
Valet, to Lothario in Rowe's Fair Penitent. During 
his first season he acted also such different roles as 
the Ghost in Hamlet, Fondlewife in Congreve's Old 
Bachelor, and Witwoud in his Way of the World, Aboan 
in Southerne's Oronooko, Costar Pearmain, and later 
Captain Brazen, in Farquhar's Recruiting Officer, 
Bayes in The Rehearsal, 1 Lear, Pierre in Otway's 
Venice Preserved, and Lord Foppington in Cibber's 
Careless Husband. 

Such a record proves more than Garrick's extraordi- 
nary versatility and his impartiality as towards 
tragedy and comedy. It shows the remarkable 
dependence of the theatre upon the drama of the 
past. If it be argued that Garrick's record is an ex- 
ceptional instance and proves little more than an 
actor's natural prudence in adhering to established 
successes, it may be answered that Garrick's name 

1 Garrick made this one of his most popular comic parts, introduc- 
ing imitations of various actors of the day in the passages where 
Bayes instructs the players how to speak their lines. 



230 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

would have been sufficient magnet for any novelty. 
An interesting indication of the public insistence upon 
the appearance of their favourite is in the Prologue 
to Fielding's Wedding-Day, where Macklin, humor- 
ously apologizing because Garrick does not speak 
the prologue, prefaces the announcement with the 
assurance that he 'performs a principal character 
in the play.' Furthermore, despite inevitable vari- 
ations in acting repertory from year to year, Genes t's 
Drury Lane lists, perhaps the most representative 
of the status of regular drama, show from the season 
of 1 734-1 73 5 onward to Garrick's time remarkable de- 
pendence on stock drama. The poverty of dramatic 
novelties was counterbalanced by the wealth of suc- 
cessful stock plays. 

One especial feature of Garrick's revivals of earlier 
drama merits especial notice — his Shakespearean 
productions. Shakespeare had, indeed, recovered 
in part from the sorry treatment to which he had 
been subjected in Restoration alterations. The 
early eighteenth century had not hesitated to adapt 
or remake Shakespeare after its own fashion, as in 
Dennis's versions of The Merry Wives and Coriolanus 1 
or in Cibber's theatrically successful Richard III, 
but as the century advanced there was a growing 
tendency to revert toward the original texts. To 
this the increase of critical editions of Shakespeare's 
works inevitably contributed. Before the middle 
of the century, Rowe's pioneer work had been fol- 

1 Entitled respectively, The Comical Gallant, or The Amours of Sir 
John Falstqffe (1702), and The Invader of his Country, or The Fatal 
Resentment (1720). 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 23 1 

lowed by the critical work of Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, 
and Warburton. Even before the advent of Garrick, 
there were not wanting signs of increasing response 
on the part of theatregoers to productions of Shake- 
speare. In February, 1738, Rich, who had in pre- 
vious seasons given over Covent Garden largely to 
such varied attractions as pantomime, French danc- 
ing, opera, and the long series of performances "of 
Handel's oratorios and operas, began a noteworthy 
succession of Shakespearean revivals. Plays like 
Richard II, Henry IV, Part II, Henry V, and Henry 
VI, Part I, set down loosely in the playbills as not 
acted for forty or fifty years, and probably in some 
cases not really acted for a much longer period, were 
produced within six weeks. The inclusion in the 
series of King John, 'as written by Shakespeare/ 
recalls a suggestive bit of theatrical history. The 
year previous Cibber had put into rehearsal at Drury 
Lane his alteration of King John, but 'so much had 
been said by the critics, who wrote against Cibber, 
in commendation of the original play,' 1 that not 
merely did Cibber withdraw his piece but Rich, al- 
ways alert to cater to the taste of the moment, success- 
fully revived the original play at Covent Garden. 
Pope, in The Dunciad, with the line 'King John in 
silence modestly expires,' and Fielding, in The His- 
torical Register, in the scene where Ground-Ivy ex- 

1 Genest, III, 504. The sequel to this incident is curious. On 15 
February, 1745, Cibber's version, entitled Papal Tyranny in the Reign 
of King John, was produced at Covent Garden, and was immediately 
answered by the Drury Lane revival of Shakespeare's play, both 
versions attaining a number of performances. Genest, IV, 146, 
158-162. 



232 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

plains at length how to alter King John, effectively 
ridiculed Cibber's ability to 'alter Shakespeare for 
the worse/ 'It was a maxim of mine/ says Ground- 
Ivy, 'that no play, though ever so good, would do 
without alteration.' 

From the Restoration period onward, Shakespeare's 
leading tragedies had constantly triumphed over 
the mutilations of revisers and the inanities of critics, 
but the comedies, with the exception of The Merry 
Wives of Windsor, had been habitually slighted. With 
the eighteenth century, the Shakespearean comedies 
fared better. In the Drury Lane season, 1 740-1741, 
that preceded Garrick's advent, there were revivals 
of As You Like It, Twelfth Night, both parts of Henry 
IV, and, most notably, of The Merchant of Venice. 
Macklin discarded not merely Lord Lansdowne's 
current text in favour of Shakespeare's but the tradi- 
tional admixture of low comedy in the conception of 
Shylock. Notwithstanding general prophecies of 
failure, Macklin won a triumph which is familiar 
from the couplet popularly ascribed to Pope: 

This is the Jew 

That Shakespeare drew. 

Thus, even before the appearance of Garrick, there 
was evidence of growing thoroughness in the appre- 
ciation of Shakespeare's dramatic genius and of 
increasing fidelity to his text and spirit. The day 
had long since passed when two of Beaumont and 
Fletcher's pieces were produced to one of Shake- 
speare's. 

Though the test of time had already established 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 233 

Shakespeare's supremacy among the earlier English 
dramatists, Garrick powerfully confirmed his popu- 
larity with theatregoers. As arbiter of Drury Lane, 
it lay in Garrick's power to set the fashion, and he 
set it decisively. As manager, he produced more 
than a score of Shakespeare's dramas, and, as actor, 
took part in the great majority of these productions. 
For the most part his influence was highly beneficial, 
but he did not wholly shake off the bad habits of 
some of his predecessors. Though he largely re- 
stored the original texts of various plays, he was 
not without the actor's craving for theatrical situa- 
tion. When he substituted Romeo and Juliet, in 
1748, for Otway's popular Caius Marius, he took the 
hint from Otway's melodramatic device of awaken- 
ing Lavinia in the tomb before the death of Young 
Marius. He even ventured to lay violent hands on 
Hamlet, which had been shielded from adaptation 
largely by the tradition of Better ton's acting, though 
according to Davies, 1 his ' audience did not approve 
what they barely endured.' Early in 1756, he pro- 
duced within a month alterations of three Shake- 
spearean comedies. If to The Taming of the Shrew 
he applied the pruning-knife, it was, in Puff's phrase, 
'the axe' that he set to The Winter's Tale, lopping 
from it most of the first three acts, though professing 
in the Prologue to his ' Dramatic Pastoral,' Florizel 
and Perdita : 

'Tis my chief Wish, my Joy, my only Plan, 
To lose no Drop of that immortal Man ! 

Thomas Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, 1784, III, 146. 



234 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Still less defensible was the operatic version of The 
Tempest, a sorry mixture of Shakespeare and Dry den, 
for which Garrick was responsible as manager, if 
not as compiler also. In a Dissertation, too frank 
for full quotation, Theophilus Cibber unsparingly 
attacked these very alterations of Garrick, and de- 
manded, 'Were Shakespeare Ghost to rise, wou'd 
he not frown Indignation, on this pilfering Pedlar 
in Poetry — who thus shamefully mangles, mutilates, 
and emasculates his Plays?' 1 Cibber, to be sure, 
argued rather from Garrick's most flagrant excep- 
tions than from his usual rule, but there is danger 
of exaggerating the fidelity of the actor's adherence 
to Shakespeare's original texts. A fairer view would 
be that, if Garrick sinned at times, he was one to 
whom much should be forgiven. If he frequently 
violated the letter, he nobly served the spirit, of his 
master. The stimulus which he gave to Shake- 
speare's popularity at Drury Lane directly affected 
the rival house. In 1750, Barry, Macklin, and Mrs. 
Cibber at Covent Garden produced Romeo and Juliet 
in nightly rivalry for almost a fortnight with Garrick, 
Woodward, and Miss Bellamy at Drury Lane, and 
in 1756, the struggle between the Lears of the 
two great Patent Theatres brought forth such epi- 
grams as: 

A King — nay, every inch a King; 
Such Barry doth appear : 

But Garrick's quite a different thing ; 
He's every inch King Lear. 2 

1 Dissertations on Theatrical Subjects, 1756, p. 36. 

2 Genest, IV, 469. See also Theophilus Cibber, op. cit., ' Second 
Dissertation/ pp. 43-47. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 235 

The increasing recognition of Shakespeare naturally 
had its bearings on the English attitude toward 
French drama and dramatic standards. The success 
of Ambrose Philips in The Distrest Mother had stimu- 
lated more than a dozen translations of plays by 
Pierre and Thomas Corneille and by Racine within 
eighteen years. But from the appearance of William 
Hatchett's Rival Father (1730), a version of Thomas 
Corneille's La Mort d'Achille, twenty years elapsed 
before interest revived in translation from French 
classical drama. During this interval The Distrest 
Mother continued to hold the stage, but not even 
Voltaire's superlatives about Cato could reawaken 
fully the old enthusiasm for the classical school of 
Philips and Addison. 

The deference at first accorded to Voltaire's critical 
opinions had likewise perceptibly lessened. The very 
men who adapted Voltaire's plays to the English 
stage flatly proclaimed his indebtedness to Shake- 
speare, and resented both the substance and the tone 
of his strictures on English drama. In the Advertise- 
ment to Merope (1749), Aaron Hill says of Voltaire: 
' So much over-active Sensibility, to his own Country's 
Claims : With so unfeeling a Stupidity, in judging the 
Pretensions of his Neighbors, might absolve all Indig- 
nation, short of gross Indecency ; toward one who has 
not scrupled ... to represent the English as incapa- 
ble of Tragedy; nay, even of Painting, or of Musick.' 1 
Even Arthur Murphy, whose Orphan of China (1759) 

1 Quoted by Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, p. 153. The 
whole chapter, 'Resentment of the English,' is particularly valu- 
able. 



236 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

was the most successful of the later English adapta- 
tions of Voltaire's tragedies, tempered his general 
praise of Voltaire by observing : ' We islanders have 
remarked of late that M. de Voltaire has a particu- 
lar satisfaction in descanting on the faults of the most 
wonderful genius that ever existed since Homer.' 1 
The plain speech of Voltaire's translators became in 
less friendly mouths violent denunciation. In 1747, 
Foote vigorously attacked Voltaire as 'that insolent 
French Panegyrist, who first denies Shakespear al- 
most every Dramatic Excellence, and then, in his next 
Play, pilfers from him almost every capital Scene/ and 
pictured him in his dual role of critic and dramatist 
as 'the carping superficial Critic and the low paltry 
Thief.' 2 

Extreme bursts of patriotic ire must not, however, 
be mistaken for proof of general contempt for Voltaire. 
Garrick himself acted in Mahomet, Merope, and The 
Orphan of China, appearing eleven times in the second 
and nine times in the last of these plays during their 
first seasons. 3 Other adaptations of Voltaire's trage- 
dies were essayed, though with less success, in Orestes 
(1768), Alniida and Zobeide (1771), and Semiramis 
(1776). These versions, though varying considerably 
in point of adherence to their originals, in general 
show compromise between French restrictions and 
English freedom. Voltaire himself, under Shake- 
speare's influence, had relaxed the letter of the classical 

1 Quoted by Lounsbury, Shakespeare and Voltaire, p. 150. 

2 The Roman and English Comedy Consider' 'd and Compared, i747> 
pp. 21-22. 

3 Figures based on Genest, IV, 269, 272, 549, 555. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 237 

law, even permitting the introduction of ghosts in 
Eriphyle and Semiramis. His adapters did not 
hesitate to abridge long declamatory speeches, to 
invigorate the action, and to break over various minor 
conventions of classical drama. Some of Voltaire's 
comedies had an English rendering, as in Murphy's 
No One's Enemy but His Own (1764), founded on 
L'Indiscret, and in Colman's successful version of 
L'Ecossaise in The English Merchant (1767). Vol- 
taire thus continued through the third quarter of the 
eighteenth century to contribute to English drama ; 
but few of his pieces attracted more than temporary 
interest, and some were actual failures. Merope had 
occasional revival at Drury Lane and seems to have 
inspired John Hoole's Cyrus (1768). The Orphan of 
China was reproduced, with indifferent success, at 
Covent Garden in 1777, and at Dublin in 1810. Yet, 
in point of actual stage popularity, even these dramas 
did not surpass some of the native English tragedies 
of the day. Occasional tragedies, such as Murphy's 
Alzuma (1773), show the continued influence of Vol- 
taire; but playwrights were more ready to imitate 
than the public was to applaud such borrowings. 
On the critical side, Voltaire's extreme censures of 
Shakespeare met with increasing disfavour, yet his 
influence counted strongly in maintaining the belief 
that Shakespeare's now indisputable supremacy was 
the triumph of genius over the canons of dramatic 
art. Great as was the progress of Shakespeare's 
reputation during the Garrick era, it was not yet fully 
understood that he was not merely a great dramatist 
but a great dramatic artist. 



238 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Shakespeare's popularity did not lead to the general 
adoption of Elizabethan models by the dramatists of 
the Garrick era. The publication, in 1744, of Dods- 
ley's famous collection of old plays, which with few 
exceptions antedate the Restoration, is evidence 
chiefly of awakening literary interest in the history of 
earlier English drama. An occasional adaptation 
like Garrick's Gamesters (1757), altered from Shirley's 
Gamester, seems somewhat accidental. Otway, South- 
erne, and Rowe were greater favourites in tragedy 
than any of the Elizabethans save Shakespeare. Yet 
such English examples hardly seem to have drawn 
such deliberate imitation as is discernible in plays 
that follow the classical model. 

In Irene (1749), Dr. Samuel Johnson (1 709-1 784) 
produced a chill tragedy which not even the loyal 
efforts of his former pupil, Garrick, could warm into 
real vitality. The scene set in Constantinople after 
its fall has the faint local colour to be found in the old 
heroic tragedies, and the theme, which turns on the 
temptation of the Greek maiden Irene by the offer of 
a throne rejected by the more loyal Aspasia, is equally 
aloof from ordinary life. The moralizing spirit of 
sentimental drama finds expression in such precepts 
as 'Angelic Greatness is Angelic Virtue,' and 

Be virtuous Ends pursued by virtuous Means, 
Nor think th' Intention sanctifies the Deed. 1 

At the end the didactic note is apparent in the lines 
which proclaim 'the Justice of all-conscious Heav'n.' 

1 These are but two of the maxims inflicted upon Irene by Aspasia 
(HI, 8). See 1749 edition, pp. 42, 44. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 239 

One is tempted to borrow from Johnson's Prologue 
spoken by Garrick at the opening of Drury Lane, in 
1747, some of the lines in which he brought his 
excellent review of English drama down toward his 
own day : 

Then crush'd by Rules, and weaken'd as refin'd, 
For Years the Pow'r of Tragedy declin'd ; 
From Bard, to Bard, the frigid Caution crept, 
Till Declamation roar'd, while Passion slept. 

Though declamation did not roar with Garrick, pas- 
sion slept with Irene. 

In 1750, William Whitehead (17 15-1785), later 
poet laureate, in a version of Horace entitled The 
Roman Father won a success only second to that of 
The Distrest Mother among the English versions of 
French classical tragedy. For half a century The 
Roman Father remained a stock play, and its success 
was doubtless the chief stimulus to some eight or ten 
other translations from the dramas of Pierre and 
Thomas Corneille and Racine during the last half of 
the eighteenth century. 

Of original dramatic power there are few traces in 
the tragedies of the Garrick era. Never perhaps in 
English dramatic history has the poverty of the play- 
wright been so generously aided by the wealth of the 
actor. The new tragedies which won success in the 
first decade after the mid-century include, besides 
Moore's Gamester which has been discussed previously, 
Jones's Earl of Essex (1753), Crisp's Virginia (1754), 
Brown's Barbarossa (1754), and Home's Douglas 
(1756). Of these the first reworks the theme of 



240 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Banks's Unhappy Favourite, which still held the stage 
and had been produced that very season, and the sec- 
ond and third gave to Garrick the parts in which he 
most frequently appeared during their respective sea- 
sons of 1753-1754 and 1754-1755. Crisp's Virginia, a 
mediocre handling of a familiar dramatic subject, 
probably suggested Moncrief's Appius (1755). The 
part of Achmet in Barbarossa, which Garrick played 
no less than sixteen times in its first season, was that 
in which ' Master Betty,' the ' Young Roscius,' made his 
extraordinary London debut at Covent Garden, in 1804. 
John Home (1 722-1808), a Scotch minister who 
eventually paid for dramatic enterprise in the en- 
forced resignation of his clerical charge, obtained in 
Douglas (1756, Edinburgh; 1757, London) a success 
that led some enthusiasts to hail him as the ' Scotch 
Shakespeare.' His first dramatic ventures promised 
little. While settled in his East Lothian parish he 
wrote a tragedy, Agis, which Garrick rejected. In 
1755 he travelled to London on horseback with the 
manuscript of Douglas, only to encounter another 
rejection from Garrick. But Home was a prophet 
who found honour in his own country. In December, 
1756, Douglas was produced in Edinburgh and be- 
came a national triumph. A few months later, Rich 
produced it at Covent Garden x with Barry and Peg 
Woffington, and its success led Garrick to accept Agis. 
Later tragedies, The Siege of Aquileia (1760), The 
Fatal Discovery (1769), Alonzo (1773), and Alfred 

1 Its initial success in London has at times been exaggerated. 
Genest, IV, 495, under date of 28 April, 1757, records its '9th and last 
time ' of production that season. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 241 

(1778), met with indifferent reception or failure. 
Home's fame rested on his one great triumph. 

In the barren ground of Scotch drama it is not 
surprising that Douglas seemed an oasis. The famil- 
iar ancedote of the Scotchman who was said to have 
risen in the pit triumphantly with the words, 'Weel, 
lads; what think ye of Wully Shakespeare noo/ 
reflects more patriotism than judgment. Yet Thomas 
Gray, in a letter, August, 1757, declared 1 : 'I am 
greatly struck with " The Tragedy of Douglas ; " 
though it has infinite faults : The Author seems to 
me to have retrieved the true Language of the stage, 
which had been lost for these hundred years, and 
there is one scene (between Matilda and the old 
Peasant) so masterly, that it strikes me blind to all the 
defects in the world. ! The philosopher Hume ascribed 
to his friend Home ' the true theatric genius of Shake- 
spear and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarism 
of the one, and licentiousness of the other.' 2 If this 
extraordinary verdict showed that there were more 
things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in 
Hume's philosophy, it was counterbalanced by 
Doctor Johnson's severe dictum that ' there were not 
ten good lines in the whole play.' 3 At all events, its 
stage success was indisputable. Home received a 
gold medal from Thomas Sheridan, a pension from 
the Princess of Wales, and the plaudits of the pit. 

x The Letters of Thomas Gray, edited by D. C. Tovey, 1900-1912, 
I) 335 > footnote 2. Genest, who says Gray's letter was to Walpole, 
has (IV, 490) many variants in his text. 

2 The Philosophical Works of David Hume, edited by Green and 
Grose, 1874-1875, III, 67. 

8 BoswelPs Life of Johnson, Hill edition, 1887, V, 360. 

R 



242 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

To-day Douglas is remembered chiefly by Young 
Norval's speech, long a favourite piece for declamation, 
'My name is Norval: on the Grampian hills, My 
father feeds his flocks ' (H,'i) . The extravagant praises 
of Home's contemporaries have sometimes reacted 
nowadays against a fair appraisal of the play. In 
contrast with the frigid dulness of many classical 
imitations, Douglas strikes a distinctly romantic note. 
As the successor of Robert Blair, author of The Grave, 
in his East Lothian parish, and the friend to whom 
William Collins inscribed his Ode on the Popular 
Superstitions of the Highlands, Home had breathed a 
romantic atmosphere. Douglas is based on the old 
ballad, 'Child Maurice' — the Scotch 'Gil Morrice' 
which found a place in Percy's Reliques. The tone of 
brooding melancholy and the touches of nature, which 
differentiate its background from the unreal foreign 
setting of so many conventional tragedies, impart to 
Douglas a novel tinge of romanticism. It is not 
difficult to detect flaws in its dramatic construction. 
Action sometimes gives way to declamation, and 
the scene between Lady Randolph and her confidante, 
Anna, handles exposition in a fashion so artless that 
Sheridan may have taken a hint from it for Tilburina 
and her confidante in The Critic. Sheridan, also, 
may have burlesqued some passages, such as Lady 
Randolph's utterances and Young Norval's familiar 
lines. 1 But such parody would at least attest the 
continued stage popularity of Douglas. The frequent 
suggestion that Garrick rejected the tragedy because 

1 See for specific discussion, the present writer's Major Dramas of 
Sheridan, Introduction, pp. ciii-cv, and Notes, p. 312. 



xiv THE GARRICK ERA 243 

he feared that his part might be overshadowed is 
open to question, but it is certain that Mrs. Siddons 
scored a triumph as Lady Randolph. Amid the 
tragedies at the beginning of the last half of the 
eighteenth century, two stand forth distinctly. In 
The Gamester, Moore continued Lillo's tendency 
toward prose realistic tragedy. In Douglas, Home 
struck a note of romantic tragedy which seems pre- 
monitory of the romantic movement late in the cen- 
tury. 

The classical tragedies of William Mason (1724- 
1797) belong, in a sense, to literary rather than to 
dramatic history. Yet their ultimate, though long- 
delayed, production at Covent Garden entitles them 
to some consideration here. Mason was one of the 
Cambridge set of 'polite scholars' among whom was 
numbered his friend, Thomas Gray. His classical 
tastes found expression in his dramatic poem Elfrida, 
published in 1752. Twenty years later, without the 
author's consent, George Colman altered it for the 
stage with sufficient success to justify more than 
a score of performances. Not content with Colman's 
version, Mason himself revised the piece for a later 
production (1779), also at Covent Garden. Carac- 
tacus, 'Written on the Model of The Ancient Greek 
Tragedy,' printed in 1759, was acted, with the author's 
revisions, in 1776, fourteen times. Mason's classical 
tragedies are more noteworthy for form than for sub- 
stance. He built on the lines of Greek tragedy, with 
deference to the dramatic unities and to the classical 
distaste for violent action, and with a fondness for 
the introduction of Greek choruses which his own 



244 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, xiv 

alterations for the stage recognize as unwise. His 
verse shows the influence of Milton and Gray, but at 
best reproduces external form without poetic content. 
Yet his dramatic shortcomings are those of his age. 
Not the play, but the player dominated the Garrick 
era. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 

The general poverty of original English drama 
during the mid-eighteenth century is apparent in 
comedy as well as in tragedy. A few regular comedies 
still show the partial survival of the vis comica of 
earlier drama. Benjamin Hoadley's comedy, The Sus- 
picious Husband (1747), whose initial run of a dozen 
successive nights was but the beginning of Garrick's 
long-continued success in the part of Ranger, became 
a stock drama. The Jealous Wife, The Clandestine 
Marriage, and occasional comedies of less significance 
are welcome proof that the earlier comic tradition did 
not wholly disappear under the wave of moralized 
sentiment. It must also be remembered that the 
comic spirit found constant expression in the stage 
revivals of earlier masterpieces. The genius of 
comedy was not dead in an age that knew David 
Garrick as Abel Drugger in The Alchemist. Yet, for 
the most part, laughter felt so constrained in the 
formal limits of five acts that it sought free outlet in 
the larger license of farce, burlesque, and pantomime. 

Throughout the Garrick era, regular drama found 
constant rivals for popular favour in pantomime, far- 
cical entertainment, and spectacle. After the seces- 
sion of Barry and Mrs. Cibber to Covent Garden, 
Garrick reopened his theatre, in September, 1750, 

245 



246 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

with a prologue which pronounced Drury Lane sacred 
to Shakespeare, but declared his willingness to cater 
to popular demand if Harlequin was preferred to Ham- 
let and the stage carpenter to the dramatic poet. 
In point of fact, he produced that season with con- 
spicuous success 'a new Entertainment, in Italian 
Grotesque characters, called Queen Mob' with Wood- 
ward as Harlequin. Once Garrick even overshot 
the mark in 'a new grand Entertainment of Dancing 
called The Chinese Festival' (1755), an elaborate 
spectacle 'with new music, scenes, machines, habits, 
and other decorations,' and a large company of per- 
formers. The inclusion of a number of foreign dancers 
was made the occasion of a series of serious riots, and 
led to the withdrawal of the piece after its sixth 
performance. 

At Covent Garden, through the ups and downs of 
his long managerial career, Rich relied on pantomime 
as his surest support. Upon one of his great successes, 
Orpheus and Eurydice (1740), he spent about two 
thousand pounds. This piece, which may sufficiently 
illustrate the general nature of Rich's entertainments, 
is part opera and part comedy, and includes among 
the comic characters in the pantomime Harlequin, 
Pantaloon, Columbine, Squire Gawky and his mother, 
and Pantaloon's servant. Its most famous spec- 
tacular device was the mechanical serpent whose busi- 
ness was to pierce Eurydice's heel. Rich also made 
capital out of the revival, in 1759, of The Beggar's 
Opera, which, apart from the interruption of the 
habitual performance of Rowe's ' Fifth of November 
play' Tamerlane, ran for thirty-seven consecutive 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 247 

nights. Thus, though in a large sense Shakespeare 
dominated the drama as Garrick did the theatre of 
the day, their supremacy was resolutely challenged. 
The conflict between regular drama and its less 
dignified rivals was not seldom settled by a practical 
compromise. As Restoration tragedy had frequently 
its coarsely comic epilogue, eighteenth- century drama 
was often capped with a comic afterpiece. Panto- 
mime, burlesque, farce, and operetta proved well 
adapted for this purpose. Pieces of two or three acts, 
often so nondescript in character that they are loosely 
described as ' entertainments,' found ready favour. As 
this practice of the theatres increased in popularity, 
even so considerable a play as Sheridan's Critic was 
produced as an afterpiece. Colley Cibber reluctantly 
admitted pantomimes 'as crutches to our weakest 
plays,' and his fellow-manager Booth, with an eye to 
the box-office, found no harm in an addition to the 
evening's entertainment which greatly enlarged the 
audience for regular drama. When the increase of 
prices on pantomime nights was declared an imposi- 
tion upon the patrons of regular drama, the Drury 
Lane management met the objection, as early as 1734, 
by allowing 'the advanced money to be returned to 
those who go out before the Overture of the Enter- 
tainment begins ' — a custom whose long continuance 
is presumptive proof that no serious financial loss re- 
sulted. 1 The Drury Lane playbill for 28 December, 

1 'It may be questioned if there was a demand for the return of £20 
in 10 years.' Genest, III, 158. See Genest, III, 441-442, under date 
of 14 December, 1734, as to the return of advanced money. On that 
occasion Farquhar's Recruiting Officer was followed by a ' Pantomime 
called Merlin, or the Devil at Stone-Henge.' 



248 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

1744, reproduced by Genest, 1 repeats substantially 
the same announcement, and will serve as sufficient 
illustration of the connection between formal drama 
and the afterpiece in actual stage representation. 
To the drama for the evening, Steele's Conscious 
Lovers, was added 'a Pantomime Entertainment call'd 
Harlequin Shipwreck' d.' It does not seem fantastic 
to detect a reactionary effect of the afterpiece on the 
drama itself, for The Conscious Lovers is billed 'with 
Entertainments' which include ' Singing by Mr. 
Lowe' in the second act, and at the 'End of Act 
IV. a Grand Dance by Mr. Muilment, and others.' 
Examination of many eighteenth-century playbills 
seems to support the suggestion here ventured that 
the popular practice of including a pantomime or other 
afterpiece may have increased the tendency of regu- 
lar drama to fortify itself with music, dancing, and 
various other accessories of pantomime and spectacle. 
That such influences exerted real pressure may be seen 
in Garrick's retention of operatic features in his pro- 
duction of The Tempest, and in the addition of more 
than a score of songs and the employment of some 
Italian singers in the version of Midsummer Night's 
Dream called The Fairies (1755), usually ascribed to 
Garrick and certainly produced under his direction. 
It may further be suggested that the multiplication 
of such short dramatic pieces as Fielding's facilitated 
the practice of including an afterpiece, and that in 
turn the increased possibilities of stage production 
encouraged the writing of short theatrical pieces that 
would serve for passing amusement. In such aspects, 
1 lV i 142. 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 249 

the custom of the afterpiece concerns more than the 
theatrical antiquary. It may be said to exercise a 
real, though not definitely determinable, influence 
on regular drama. 

Most conspicuous among writers of minor drama 
during the Garrick era is Samuel Foote (17 20-1 7 7 7). 
Though appearing, in 1744, in the ill-chosen role of 
Othello, Foote soon found his forte in comedy. Like 
Garrick, he introduced in the part of Bayes mimicry 
and caricature of his fellow-actors. In April, 1747, 
evading the Licensing Act by advertising 'a Concert 
of Mustek with which will be given gratis a new Enter- 
tainment called the Diversions of the Morning,' 1 Foote 
established himself at the Little Theatre in the Hay- 
market. The vein of mimicry already successfully 
struck was now developed unsparingly in caricature 
of the lingering accents of Garrick's dying speeches, 
the ' squeaking pipe' of Mrs. Woffington, and even 
the physical defect in Delane's eyesight. During 
the season Foote varied his announcements by invit- 
ing his friends ' to come and drink a dish of Chocolate 
with him' at noon or 'a dish of Tea' at half-past six. 
For two subsequent seasons the ' Auction of Pictures' 
was his framework for a set of dramatic sketches, out- 
lined sometimes with general satirical strokes and 
sometimes with individual touches of caricature. In 
The Knights (1749), Foote essayed more regular 
dramatic form, casting his ' comedy' in two acts and, 
according to the Preface, drawing the ' three principal 
characters' from life 'in their plain natural habit/ 
Yet Foote depended largely on his own actor's art 
1 Genest, IV, 225. 



250 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

and somewhat on the addition of a ' Cat's Opera' 
burlesquing Italian opera. 

Foote had found little difficulty in evading the 
Licensing Act, but he was fortified in 1766, with the 
patent obtained through the influence of the Duke 
of York which entitled him to perform during the 
summer season, from the middle of May to the 
middle of September. Though this patent was only 
for a summer theatre and for Foote's lifetime, it was 
in reality a grant for a third Patent Theatre. Pos- 
sessed of powers of caricature which even Doctor 
Johnson thought dangerous, 1 and backed by royal 
license, Foote kept Garrick constantly uneasy at his 
animosity and jealous of his success. His career as 
playwright curiously coincides within a few months 
with Garrick's managership at Drury Lane (1747- 
1776). 

As a dramatist, Foote was a direct descendant of 
Fielding. With him, Fielding's partiality for short 
theatrical pieces becomes quite consistent practice. 
Of Foote's printed dramatic works, numbering about 
a score, none exceeds in length three acts. The 
personalities, t local hits,' and contemporary sat- 
ire of Fielding were developed to the full by this 
clever mimic who convulsed those whom he did not 
hold up to ridicule. With Foote, as with Fielding, 
much of the zest of personal satire is now lost. Taylor, 
the quack oculist, the Welshman Ap Rice, the extor- 
tioner, Mrs. Grieve, the Quaker doctor Fordyce, and 
so many other passing figures whom Foote delighted 
to ridicule are now unfamiliar. Even George Faulk- 
1 Boswell's Life of Johnson, Hill edition, 1887, II, 299. 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 251 

ner, remembered perhaps as Swift's Dublin publisher, 
is too shadowy to give distinctness to the mockery 
of him as Peter Paragraph in The Orators (1762). 
Doctor Johnson told Boswell x that the fear of broken 
bones restrained Foote from caricaturing him, but for 
the most part Foote was no respecter of persons. 
When A Trip to Calais was so plainly directed at the 
Duchess of Kingston in the character of Lady Kitty 
Crocodile that she interfered to secure the suppression 
of the piece, Foote altered his sketch into The Capuchin 
(1776), and vented his satire upon her chaplain Jackson 
in the abusive portrait of Doctor Viper. Sometimes, as 
in the two farces, The Englishman in Paris (1753) and 
The Englishman Returned from Paris (1756), where 
racial peculiarities are touched, Foote essayed the 
broader strokes of general satire, but such efforts 
seem less successful than those that are whetted with 
the zest of personal caricature. 

The modern reader will perhaps more readily 
appreciate Foote's methods of dramatic satire in The 
Minor (1760) and The Maid of Bath (1771). The 
Minor, though not free from grossness, is in Foote's 
best vein of ready wit, lively characterization, and tell- 
ing satire. From Little Transfer, the broker, Sheri- 
dan doubtless took the hint for 'little Premium' in 
The School for Scandal, while Charles Surface is some- 
what reminiscent of the improvident young Wealthy, 
whose father, in the disguise of a German baron, 
tests his son's character in a fashion that bears some 
resemblance to Sir Oliver's methods with his nephews. 
If Sheridan took freely such suggestions, he had the 
1 Ibid., II, 95- 



252 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

dramatic genius which Foote lacked of welding inci- 
dents firmly into his plot and giving action to charac- 
ter. The Minor has more dramatic substance than 
is usual with Foote, yet its chief point is satire of 
Whitehead and his Methodist followers. White- 
head himself, caricatured as Doctor Squintum, 
does not actually appear among the dramatis 
persona, but his precepts are given mock author- 
ity in the mouth of Mrs. Cole, whose shameless 
profession is no obstacle to her conversion to the 
cult of Whitehead's Tabernacle. In the Intro- 
duction, Foote in person explains to Smart and 
Canker that ' ridicule is the only antidote against 
this pernicious poison' which he rinds in Whitehead, 
but his resort to the ' comic muse ' was in the interest 
of theatrical success and not of religious reform. In 
Shift, Tate Wilkinson, the actor who had once dared 
to mimic Foote on his own stage, was ruthlessly cari- 
catured. With Foote the whirligig of time was sure 
to bring in his revenges. 

The Maid of Bath (i 771) is based on episodes in the 
earlier life of Elizabeth Linley, the bewitching favour- 
ite of the concert stage whose public career ended with 
her romantic marriage to Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan. 'The lively little Linnet' is Miss Linley, 'that 
old fusty, shabby, shuffling, money-loving, water- 
drinking, mirth-marring, amorous old hunks, master 
Solomon Flint' caricatures Miss Linley 's elderly 
admirer Long, and Major Rackett is the notorious 
married rake, Major Mathews, who later slandered 
Sheridan and met him in duel. The upshot of Foote's 
play is that Miss Linnet, setting aside the worldly 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 253 

advice of her mother and the propositions of her 
various suitors, commends herself to the patrons who 
have welcomed her 'little talents.' Amid the per- 
sonalities of the piece Foote inserted a puff direct for 
himself. When Lady Catherine fails to secure from 
Flint 'a pecuniary acknowledgement for the damage' 
done to Miss Linnet by his attentions, she says : 
' Gad's wull, it sha' cum to the proof : You mun ken, 
gued folk, at Edinbrugh, laist winter, I got acquainted 
with Maister Foote, the play-actor : I wull get him 
to bring the filthy loon on the stage' (III, 1). Foote, 
indeed, was his own prompter in bringing on the 
stage the local gossip and town tattle of the hour. 

Foote's other dramatic pieces follow the general 
lines already suggested. His satire hit readily at 
whatever subject was ready to hand — at the credu- 
lity of collectors of antiques and of pictures in Taste, 
at the pretences of authors and their patrons in The 
Author and The Patron, at the unmartial spirit of the 
militia in The Mayor of Garratt, at the quackery of 
doctors in The Devil upon Two Sticks, and at knavery 
in The Cozeners. Yet such themes served mainly 
as general framework for living pictures of Taylor, 
the 'Itinerant Oculist,' of Ap Rice, of Thomas Sheri- 
dan, and of other definite personalities of the day. 
Without the conscious zeal of the reformer or the 
sympathy that deeply interprets character, Foote 
turned his satire chiefly to the oddities and eccentrici- 
ties of society. For the most part, his characters 
have animation and theatrical effectiveness, but they 
are exposed rather than developed in action. Action, 
indeed, with Foote is more apt to be the bustle of 



254 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

the stage than the coherent development of dra- 
matic plot. Again and again, dialogue is allowed to 
wander from the forward path into the meanders 
of personal gossip, somewhat in the fashion of Air- 
castle in The Cozeners, a delightful ' humour' char- 
acter who keeps up a running but aimless fire of speech. 
Though Foote's pieces are usually printed as 'come- 
dies/ they belong mainly to the realm of farce. Like 
his own actor's art, they are fond of substituting mim- 
icry for original interpretation of character. There 
are occasional flashes of comic genius, but more 
frequently an artificial cleverness. Among the dram- 
atists of his day Foote holds a distinct, if not unique, 
position, but it is as a cartoonist rather than as a 
dramatic artist. 

The zest of Foote's farces, without their personal 
sting, is seen in various contemporary afterpieces. 
Garrick's practical knowledge of the stage helped him 
to produce successfully a number of lively farces, such 
as The Lying Valet (1741), Miss in her Teens (1747), 
The Irish Widow (1772), and Bon Ton (1775). Per- 
haps better than any of these is High Life Below 
Stairs (1759), frequently ascribed to Garrick, but 
really the work of his friend, Rev. James Townley 
(1 714-1778). A long career as schoolmaster led 
finally to Townley's appointment as head-master at 
the Merchant Taylors' School, where he enlivened the 
curriculum with some dramatics. His later farces, 
False Concord (1764) and The Tutor (1765), were less 
successful. Though High Life Below Stairs is perhaps 
not so wholly novel in theme as is sometimes asserted, 
it proved a welcome variety to those who, like George 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 255 

Selwyn, were tired of 'low life above stairs.' For the 
most part, servants had been relegated to the back- 
ground, but Townley opened the door of servants' 
hall, as Thackeray did in the Diary of C. Jeames de la 
Pluche. The brisk farce has considerable action, and 
leads to a good dramatic situation where the returned 
master, Lovel, is about to shoot through the door at 
the supposed cat which has been declared responsible 
for the noise made by the refugees now in hiding. 
Faithful Tom, the honest servant, is vindicated in 
rather conventional fashion, but the spirit and fun of 
the piece gave it long vitality on the English stage, 
led to its translation into French and German, and 
secure for it even to-day occasional hearing. 

Among playwrights of the period a place must be 
accorded to the prolific Arthur Murphy (1727- 
1805). The diversity apparent in his various pursuits 
as bank clerk, periodical writer, barrister, actor, and 
playwright, is characteristic also of his wide range of 
dramatic effort. The Spouter, or The Triple Revenge, 
published in 1756, attributed to Murphy, follows the 
vein of Fielding's and Foote's personal satires. Hill, 
Theophilus Cibber, and Foote are the objects of the 
triple revenge, while Garrick and Rich come in for 
some satirical strokes. The Upholsterer (1757), a 
farce that seems indebted to Fielding's Coffee-House 
Politician, is a general satire of political quidnuncs. 
From personal and farcical satire Murphy rose to 
comedy in The Way to Keep Him (1760), expanded 
the following year from three to five acts, and All in 
the Wrong (1761), drawn from Moliere, plays which 
held a place on the stage until well into the next 



256 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

century. Less successful were his three adaptations 
from Voltaire previously discussed. The School for 
Guardians ■, compounded largely from Moliere, is an- 
other instance of Murphy's indebtedness to French 
drama. Of his tragedies, Zenobia (1768) and The Gre- 
cian Daughter (1772) sufficiently illustrate his adherence 
to the remote unrealities of classical drama. The 
initial success of The Grecian Daughter was largely 
due to the Barrys, but its theatrical fame rests more 
securely upon the tradition of Mrs. Siddons in the role 
of Euphrasia. 

In many ways, Arthur Murphy may be taken as a 
fair representative of the ordinary drama of his period. 
He was content to cast his plays in the conventional 
mould, and to draw his materials from sources as ob- 
vious, and yet as varied, as Fielding's farces, Moliere's 
comedies, and Voltaire's tragedies. In comedy he 
sounded the familiar didactic note, schooling wives 
in ' the way to keep ' their husbands, and husbands in 
the lesson that constancy should not be shamefaced. 
In tragedy he struck the conventional chords. Yet, 
with sufficient theatrical sense to follow industriously 
the fashions which he had not the originality to lead, 
he won a considerable measure of popular favour. His 
dramas lack distinction and individuality, but are 
not without ingenuity in adaptation of materials to 
his purposes. His dramatic aim may have been 
higher than that of Fielding or Foote, but none of 
his comedies leaves so distinct an impression as Town- 
ley's less pretentious farce, and none of his tragedies 
seems so memorable as Fielding's burlesque tragedy, 
Tom Thumb. 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 



257 



Another popular Irish playwright of the Garrick 
period was Isaac Bickerstafe l (1735 circ-1812 ?). 
He had a facile hand for opera libretti, giving to 
Thomas and Sally (1760) the typical eighteenth- cen- 
tury plot of a villainous squire foiled by the hero in 
his attempt to seduce the innocent maiden, and taking 
hints from an earlier opera and from Wycherley's 
Gentleman Dancing-Master for his Love in a Village 
(1762). The Maid of the Mill (1765), drawn largely 
from Pamela, and Lionel and Clarissa (1768) were 
conspicuous operatic successes for which Bickerstaff 
supplied the words. In 1768, he produced at Drury 
Lane, in successive months, two very popular pieces — 
The Padlock, a musical entertainment which had 
more than fifty performances, and The Hypocrite, an 
excellent revision of Cibber's Non-Juror, with the 
addition of the effective stage character, Maw-worm. 
With little creative dramatic power, Bickerstaff had 
considerable facility in adaptation and practical 
knowledge of theatrical effects. 

The mediocrity of playwrights like Murphy and Bick- 
erstaff enhances by contrast the far more noteworthy 
comic achievement of George Colman, the Elder 
(173 2-1 794). In his best work are traces of the 
earlier and more genuine comic spirit which had been 
largely lost as drama had become sentimentalized. 
His father, envoy at the court of Tuscany, died the 
year after his son's birth at Florence. Educated by 

1 The name is frequently spelled 'Bickerstaflfe.' His plays were 
habitually published anonymously, but The Romp (1786), gives his 
name as 'Bickerstaff,' and this is the spelling in the Garrick Corre- 
spondence, 
s 



258 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

his uncle who urged him, after his course at Oxford, 
to follow the law, and prodded by his aunt toward the 
ministry, his own taste turned toward literature. 
By 1760 he had won reputation as a man of literary 
taste and discernment, and had made friends with 
Garrick. Conscious of his uncle's dislike for his dra- 
matic tendencies, Colman produced his first dramatic 
venture, Polly Honey combe (1760), anonymously. 
Slight as is this popular afterpiece, it merits unusual 
attention as a reaction against the sentimental school 
and as a forerunner of Sheridan's Rivals. The satire 
directed in the Prologue against the sentimental novel 
foreshadows the opening scene where Polly bids her 
Nurse ■ call at the Circulating Library ' for the novels 
of the day — a scene which inevitably recalls Lydia 
Languish's introductory conversation with Lucy 
about the novels of the circulating library. The 
exclamation of Polly's father, 'A man might as well 
turn his daughter loose in Co vent- Garden, as trust 
the cultivation of her mind to a circulating library,' 
suggests Sir Anthony Absolute's more finished dictum, 
1 A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree 
of diabolical knowledge.' Like Lydia Languish, 
Polly thinks of ' ladders of ropes ' and other accessories 
of sentimental elopements. In Polly Honey combe, 
Colman anticipates the laugh which Sheridan was to 
turn against sentimentality. 

The Jealous Wife (1761), deservedly the most popu- 
lar comedy of its day, is essentially a dramatization of 
Tom Jones. Tom Jones becomes Charles Oakly; 
Sophia, Harriot; Lady Bellaston, Lady Freelove; 
Lord Fellmar, Lord Trinket ; Squire Western, Russet ; 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 259 

Blifil, Beagle, with an effective transfer to him of 
Squire Western's sporting instincts. Mr. and Mrs. 
Oakly are not in Tom Jones. Numerous situations 
in the novel and the play are identical, and from the 
novel are taken the use of the press-gang, the chal- 
lenge for the duel, and Charles's intoxication. Fur- 
ther questions as to the sources of the play are com- 
fortably settled by Colman's statement in the ' Ad- 
vertisement' that he took 'some hints' from the 
Spectator, a suggestion from the Adelphi of Terence, 
and advice from Garrick. Colman, however, deserves 
full credit for his skill in welding his materials into 
effective drama. 

The Jealous Wife is strongly reminiscent of Restora- 
tion comedy, without the unhealthiness of its moral 
atmosphere. Lord Trinket's French phrases have 
the familiar Gallic affectation, and Lady Freelove suits 
her action to her name in the fashion of the Restora- 
tion. She exhibits the habitual contempt for the 
country and the preference for good manners over good 
morals. Sir Harry Beagle's rough love-making to 
Harriot (IV, 2) recalls sailor Ben's love-making in 
Congreve's Love for Love (III, 3), with the substitu- 
tion of the lingo of the stable for that of the sea. 1 The 
plot is dramatically effective, the situations ingenious. 
The scene where Mrs. Oakly overhears her husband 
and Harriot, and then, with Russet's vigorous aid, 
accuses the innocent Oakly (end of Act III) is an excel- 

1 Though the spirit is closer than the phraseology, Sir Harry's 
'Look'ye, Miss, I am a Man of few Words' is comparable with Ben's 
'How say you, mistress? The short of the thing is, that if you like 
me, and I like you, we may chance to swing in a hammock together.' 



260 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

lent illustration of stage effectiveness. The action 
does not flag, and its two plots are skilfully united by 
Harriot's flight to Oakly's house which arouses the 
suspicions of the jealous wife. The final solution re- 
mains in doubt for a time, as it seems uncertain 
whether Oakly will assert himself enough to dominate 
his wife. Eventually, however, with somewhat of 
Petruchio's manner, he tames his wife's spirit. 

Charles Oakly is the hero, the familiar type of easy 
morals and successes in love. Tom Jones is his con- 
fessed original, and Charles Surface his best known 
descendant. Harriot is Fielding's Sophia, with some- 
what of Richardson's Pamela. Lord Trinket slightly 
recalls Richardson's Lovelace. Captain O'Cutter, an 
ancestor of Sir Lucius O' Trigger, is distinct, but his 
dialect is a doubtful experiment. Without the strength 
of character drawing of Wycherley or Vanbrugh, and 
without Congreve's finish and epigrammatic wit, 
The Jealous Wife is a distinct comedy success. 

During the next two years, Colman produced two 
successful afterpieces, The Musical Lady and The 
Deuce is in Him,~~&&A an alteration of Philaster (1763) 
in which Powell, the tragedian, made no less than 
sixteen appearances during the season. Such theatri- 
cal successes, it must be remembered, do not neces- 
sarily imply much dramatic power, for in the season 
of 1 762-1 763 Garrick's most frequent appearances in 
tragedy were as Don Alonzo, in Mallet's Elvira, and 
in comedy as Sir Anthony Branville in Mrs. Sheridan's 
Discovery, a play whose chief significance to the 
modern reader is probably that it was written by the 
mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. With the col- 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 261 

laboration of Garrick, however, Colman, rose again 
to genuine comedy in The Clandestine Marriage 
(1766). 

The germ of The Clandestine Marriage was one of 
Hogarth's plates in his Marriage-d-la-Mode. The 
characters of Lord Ogleby, Sterling, and Brush, to- 
gether with a considerable amount of dialogue, are 
said to have been taken from Townley's farce, False 
Concord, but in any event their success came only 
with transfer into a vital drama. Lord Ogleby, at 
least, becomes a notable stage character, a survivor of 
the famous Restoration family which included Sir 
Fopling Flutter, Sir Novelty Fashion, Sir Courtly 
Nice, and Lord Foppington. In the ' character part' 
of Mrs. Heidelberg some have been insistent in dis- 
covering the original of Mrs. Malaprop, but there is 
a decided difference between her mispronunciation and 
Mrs. Malaprop's 'select words so ingeniously mis- 
applied, without being mispronounced.' The very 
palpable hits in the dialogue at the artificiality of 
eighteenth-century landscape gardening * suggest that 
the play itself breaks over the dull formalities of the 
mechanical comedy of the period. At times the 
poverty of comic spirit before Goldsmith and Sheridan 
has been exaggerated into too positive insistence upon 

1 Sterling declares (II, 1) : 'You must see my water by daylight, 
and my walks, and my slopes, and my clumps, and my bridge, and my 
flow'ring trees, and my bed of Dutch tulips.' Lord Ogleby (II, 2) 
finds that in Sterling's garden 'the four seasons in lead, the flying 
Mercury, and the basin with Neptune in the middle, are all in the very 

extreme of fine taste A most excellent serpentine. . . forms 

a perfect maze, and winds like a true lover's knot . . . One can 
hardly see an inch beyond one's nose any where in these walks.' 



262 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

its extinction. With The Jealous Wife and The Clan- 
destine Marriage, it is unnecessary to invoke the aid 
of farces like Foote's, to prove that the comic spirit 
was not dead. Without belittling the importance 
of Goldsmith's service to English comedy, it is idle 
to maintain that he was the first to turn comedy back 
from tears to laughter. 

The Clandestine Marriage led to a quarrel between 
its authors over Garrick's refusal of the role of Lord 
Ogleby. The breach was widened when Colman, with 
Powell, Harris, and Rutherford, purchased the Covent 
Garden Theatre. Managerial disputes between Col- 
man and Powell on the one hand, and Harris and 
Rutherford on the other, led to Colman's retirement 
in 1774. During the seven years of his management 
at Covent Garden had been produced Goldsmith's 
Good Natur'd Man, and She Stoops to Conquer, 1 a 
revival of Cymbeline, a version of King Lear, with 
Colman's alterations, and some minor work of his own. 
After his retirement and reconciliation with Garrick, 
the latter produced for him a two-act comedy and a 
version of Ben Jonson's Silent Woman. After the 
transfer by Foote to Colman of the Haymarket 
Theatre, Colman produced some of his own minor 
pieces. A member of the Literary Club, a successful 
dramatist and manager, a translator of the comedies 
of Terence, an editor of the dramatic works of Beau- 
mont and Fletcher, a writer of prologues and epilogues, 
among them the Epilogue to The School for Scandal, 
George Colman the elder was a notable figure in the 

1 The obstacles put by him in Goldsmith's path entitle Colman to 
little credit for the production of these plays. 



xv LIGHTER DRAMA OF THE GARRICK ERA 263 

theatrical and literary world of the last half of the 
eighteenth century. The latter part of his career 
exceeds the limits of the Garrick era, but The Jealous 
Wife and The Clandestine Marriage preserve the comic 
spirit until the advent of Goldsmith and Sheridan. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE RISE AND HEIGHT OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 

Sentimental drama, foreshadowed in the pathetic 
appeal of Otway and Southerne in tragedy, and carried 
into comedy by Gibber and Steele, rose to its height 
in the Garrick era. The vein of sentiment exploited 
by Steele had run thin with his successors, passing 
at length into the crude ore of sentimentality. On 
the Continent, comedy, which had admitted a serious 
undertone in Destouches and a pathetic strain in 
Marivaux, saw sentiment turn into tears in Nivelle de 
la Chaussee. The drame serieux, or comedie bour- 
geoise and the comedie mixte led to the comedie lar- 
moyante. The birth of the sentimental novel fostered 
the tendency of comedy to substitute tears for laughter. 
Richardson directly inspired La Chaussee's Pamela 
(1743) and even Voltaire's Nanine (1749). 1 To these 
more serious tendencies of French drama the plays 
of Diderot, strongly influenced by Lillo's bourgeois 
tragedy, contributed during the third quarter of the 
eighteenth century. The very term drame suggests 
the obliteration of the rigid line between comedy and 
tragedy. In England, the kinship between sentimen- 
tal comedy and tragedy is discernible even as early 

1 Voltaire's Preface, however, declares that, though 'melting pity' 
is admissible, comedy without the comic element 'would be a very 
faulty and very disagreeable species.' 

264 



chap, xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 265 

as Steele in the pathetic note which links his senti- 
mental comedies backwards to the tragedies of Otway 
and Southerne. Both in France and in England, 
Thalia was not ashamed to hide her head on the 
shoulder of Melpomene. 

Sentimental drama did not develop without some 
protest. Gay, Fielding, and Carey burlesqued on 
the stage some of its artificialities. Even after he 
had abandoned drama for the novel, Fielding struck 
a passing blow at sentimental comedy in his descrip- 
tion in Tom Jones 1 of the puppet-show of The Provoked 
Husband as a 'very grave and solemn entertainment, 
without any low wit, or humour, or jests,' in which 
there was not ' any thing which could provoke a laugh.' 
The word 'low' became the usual brand with which 
advocates of the sentimental drama stigmatized 
comedies that stooped to conquer with so mean a 
weapon as the laugh of ridicule. 'By the power of 
one single monosyllable,' wrote Goldsmith 2 with al- 
most a presentiment of the criticism which within 
a decade was to demand the excision of the bailiffs' 
scene from his own comedy, 'our critics have almost 
got the victory over humour amongst us. Does the 
poet paint the absurdities of the vulgar; then he is 
low; does he exaggerate the features of folly, to render 
it more thoroughly ridiculous, he is then very low. 
In short, they have proscribed the comic or satyrical 
muse from every walk but high life, which, though 

1 Book XII, Chapter V. 

2 The Present State of Polite Learning, 1759 edition, p. 154, quoted 
by Austin Dobson, Belles-Lettres edition of Goldsmith's plays, In- 
troduction, pp. xiii-xiv. 



2*6 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

abounding in fools as well as the humblest station, 
is by no means so fruitful in absurdity.' Sentimental 
comedy was dignified by its admirers with the aristo- 
cratic term ' genteel.' Against its tyranny of tears 
murmurings were distinctly audible, but it main- 
tained its dominance until it had to yield to the 
comedy of Goldsmith and Sheridan. 

What was sentimental comedy in the Garrick era ? 
This question may perhaps best be answered by de- 
fining its general character and by examining some of 
its most conspicuous products. It would be difficult 
to find a clearer exposition of its general character 
than that put forth by Goldsmith in his noteworthy 
Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laugh- 
ing and Sentimental Comedy (1772). 1 After enforcing 
Aristotle's definition of comedy as 'a picture of the 
frailties of the lower part of mankind, to distinguish 
it from tragedy, which is an exhibition of the mis- 
fortunes of the great,' Goldsmith proceeds: 'Yet 
notwithstanding this weight of authority, and the 
universal practice of former ages, a new species of 
dramatic composition has been introduced, under the 
name of sentimental comedy, in which the virtues of 
private life are exhibited, rather than the vices ex- 
posed; and the distresses rather than the faults of 
mankind make our interest in the piece. These com- 
edies have had of late great success, perhaps from their 
novelty, and also from their flattering every man in his 
favourite foible. In these plays almost all the char- 

1 Published in the Westminster Magazine, December, 1772. A con- 
venient reprint may be found in Austin Dobson's edition of The Good 
Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer in the Belles-Lettres Series. 



xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 267 

acters are good, and exceedingly generous ; they are lav- 
ish enough of their tin money on the stage ; and though 
they want humour, have abundance of sentiment and 
feeling. If they happen to have faults or foibles, the 
spectator is taught, not only to pardon, but to ap- 
plaud them, in consideration of the goodness of their 
hearts; so that folly, instead of being ridiculed, is 
commended, and the comedy aims at touching our 
passions without the power of being truly pathetic. 
In this manner we are likely to lose one great source 
of entertainment on the stage; for while the comic 
poet is invading the province of the tragic muse, he 
leaves her lovely sister quite neglected. Of this, how- 
ever, he is no way solicitous, as he measures his fame 
by his profits.' Towards the end of this short essay 
Goldsmith turns from direct argument to satire : 
'But there is one argument in favour of sentimental 
comedy, which will keep it on the stage, in spite of all 
that can be said against it. It is, of all others, the 
most easily written. Those abilities that can hammer 
out a novel are fully sufficient for the production of a 
sentimental comedy. It is only sufficient to raise the 
characters a little ; to deck out the hero with a riband, 
or give the heroine a title; then to put an insipid 
dialogue, without character or humour, into their 
mouths, give them mighty good hearts, very fine 
clothes, furnish a new set of scenes, make a pathetic 
scene or two, with a sprinkling of tender melancholy 
conversation through the whole, and there is no doubt 
but all the ladies will cry, and all the gentlemen ap- 
plaud.' The testimony of Goldsmith cannot be dis- 
missed simply as that of a hostile partisan, for exami- 



268 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

nation of the sentimental comedy which he attacked 
will support the essential sanity of his verdict. 

Sentimental comedy rose to its height in the work 
of Hugh Kelly and Richard Cumberland. Hugh 
Kelly (1739-17 7 7), son of a tavern-keeper in Dublin, 
turned from early apprenticeship as a staymaker to 
the life of a literary hack in London. Essays, a suc- 
cessful novel, theatrical criticisms, and a work in the 
popular style of Churchill's Rosciad paved the way 
to dramatic efforts. False Delicacy (1768) was pro- 
duced at Drury Lane six days before Goldsmith's 
Good Natur'd Man finally achieved its belated pro- 
duction at Co vent Garden. It was the clash of senti- 
mental comedy with an upstart rival, and for the 
moment victory rested with the established favourite. 
Garrick, who had not forgotten Goldsmith's out- 
spoken strictures in The Present State of Polite Learn- 
ing on the managerial policy of the theatre, lent his 
influence to Kelly, fortifying his piece with prologue 
and epilogue, possibly touching some parts of the play 
with his practised hand, and forestalling Goldsmith by 
securing for Kelly the advantage of first hearing. In 
contrast with the moderate favour accorded at the out- 
set to Goldsmith's piece, Kelly's ' genteel' comedy won 
a theatrical triumph. On the morning after the ap- 
pearance of the first edition, appropriately dedicated 
to Garrick, the publisher announced that three thou- 
sand copies had been sold before two o'clock. By the 
end of the season the sales reached ten thousand 
copies. The play was translated into German, 
French, and Portuguese, and acted at Lisbon and 
Paris to crowded houses. Kelly had struck the 



xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 269 

popular chords of sentiment and the response was im- 
mediate. 

False Delicacy is a comedy of cross-purposes. Three 
sets of mismated lovers are entangled in a web of 
misunderstanding so transparent that it would break 
at a ruder touch than that of a sentimentalist. False 
delicacy forbids the various lovers to speak the truth, 
and the course of sentimental love never would run 
smooth without the intervention of the bluff Cecil 
and the practical matchmaker Mrs. Harley. Upon 
the artificial framework of a plot whose improbabilities 
would suggest farce if they were not treated seriously 
is imposed the didactic moralizing dear to sentimental 
comedy. A few speeches, taken almost at random 
from different characters and in different situations, 
will show the prevalent tone. Says Lady Betty (II, 
2) 1 : 'The woman that wants candour where she is ad- 
dress'd by a man of merit, wants a very essential 
virtue; and she who can delight in the anxiety of a 
worthy mind, is little to be pitied when she feels the 
sharpest stings of anxiety in her own.' Says Miss 
Rivers (IV, 2) : ' An elopement even from a tyrannical 
father, has something in it which must shock a deli- 
cate mind. — But when a woman flies from the protec- 
tion of a parent, who merits the utmost return oi her 
affection, she must be insensible indeed, if she does 
not feel the sincerest regret.' Says Sidney (V, 1) : 
'There is something shocking in a union with a woman 
whose affections we know to be alienated ; and 'tis 
difficult to say which is most entitled to contempt, 

1 Scene-divisions are not always clearly indicated either in the 
1768 octavo of False Delicacy or in the 1778 edition of Kelly's Works. 



270 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

he that stoops to accept of a pre-engaged mind, or 
he that puts up with a prostituted person/ Says 
Win worth (V, 2) : 'He is the best manager of a for- 
tune who is most attentive to the wants of the de- 
serving.' The last speech of Rivers may be taken 
as the golden text of the play: 'But the principal 
moral to be drawn from the transactions of to-day is, 
that those who generously labour for the happiness of 
others, will, sooner or later, arrive at happiness them- 
selves. ' In one of Win worth's speeches (V, 2) may be 
found the expression of Kelly's own attitude to the 
stage : 'The stage shou'd be a school of morality ; and 
the noblest of all lessons is the forgiveness of injuries.' 
'The stage should be a school of morality' — that, 
indeed, was the creed of sentimental drama. It was 
the very phrase that Sheridan, in The Critic, turned 
ironically against sentimental drama when he made 
Sneer exclaim : ' The theatre, in proper hands, might 
certainly be made the school of morality ; but now, I 
am sorry to say it, people seem to go there principally 
for their entertainment ! ' 

Although False Delicacy is essentially a sentimental 
comedy, justice must recognize Kelly's partial allevia- 
tion of the distresses of sentimentality. Mrs. Harley 
and Cecil give comic relief to the dead level of sen- 
timent which forms the usual staple of dialogue. 
'Thank heav'n,' cries Mrs. Harley, 'my sentiments 
are not sufficiently refm'd to make me unhappy' (II, 1) . 
If she had a chance to secure an eligible successor to 
her two previous husbands, she 'would make sure 
work of it at once, and leave it to your elevated minds 
to deal in delicate absurdities ' (IV, 1). When Miss 



xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 27 1 

Marchmont declares she is willing at last to accept 
Lord Winworth, wrongly thinking that this will please 
Lady Betty, her protectress, Mrs. Harley ejaculates : 
'Now will I be hang'd if she does not undo every 
thing by a fresh stroke of delicacy,' and again, ' O the 
devil take this elevation of sentiment! ' and still again, 
'Did ever two fools plague one another so heartily 
with their delicacy and sentiment ? ' Cecil, like Mrs. 
Harley, is frankly contemptuous of delicacy and senti- 
ment. 'What a ridiculous bustle is there here,' he 
breaks out in the last act, 'about delicacy and stuff — 
your people of renn'd sentiments are the most trouble- 
some creatures in the world to deal with, and their 
friends must even commit a violence upon their 
nicety before they can condescend to study their own 
happiness.' The very title of Kelly's comedy is, in 
fact, evidence that sentimental delicacy may be car- 
ried to false extremes. Yet with every allowance of 
non-sentimental elements in Kelly's work, it remains 
indisputable that the primary appeal of the dramatist 
is to sentimental emotion. The chief personages voice 
their sentiments and emit their moral platitudes in 
sober earnest and with a reformer's zeal. Their 
speeches are without the irony with which Sheridan 
turned sentimental rant to hypocritical cant in the 
mouth of Joseph Surface. Kelly cared more to point 
a moral than to adorn his drama. Even false deli- 
cacy does not prevent the blessings of comedy from 
descending at last upon its sentimental children and 
dismissing them with a dower of didactic aphorisms. 
With False Delicacy the stage has become a school of 
morality. 



272 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Kelly's next comedy, A Word to the Wise (1770), 
was crushed by the hostile attacks of his political 
foes, and his tragedy, Clementina (1771), by its own 
weight. Mindful of his enemies, Kelly produced, un- 
der the friendly name of Addington, A School for 
Wives (1773), a comedy whose continued success soon 
defied opposition. The utter failure of The Man 
of Reason (1776) caused him to give up play- 
writing. 

The leadership of sentimental drama may be said 
to have been shared between Hugh Kelly and Sir 
Richard Cumberland (1 732-1 811). Yet to-day 
Cumberland lives less as a dramatist than as the Sir 
Fretful Plagiary of Sheridan's Critic. Cumberland's 
own Memoirs and letters unconsciously prove that 
Sheridan portrayed to the life the dramatist whom 
Garrick called a 'man without a skin.' 1 It is not 
surprising that his tender sensibilities found con- 
genial employment in the writing of sentimental 
drama. Mathematical honours won at Cambridge and 
various posts held under Lord Halifax seemed to 
promise a successful political career. But when Lord 
Halifax became Secretary of State, Cumberland's 
hopes of an under-secretaryship were not realized. 
Earlier in life he had written, besides a play upon 
Caractacus, The Banishment of Cicero, which, though 
declined by Garrick, was published in 176 1. A musi- 
cal comedy, The Summer's Tale (1 765), acted with some 
success, encouraged Cumberland to essay comedy. 
The Brothers (1769) had more than a score of perform- 
ances that season and paved the way for the con- 

1 Memoirs of Richard Cumberland. Written by himself, I, 347. 



xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 273 

spicuous success of The West Indian (1771). The 
sentimental hero, young Belcour, is pictured as 'a 
heart beaming with benevolence, an animated na- 
ture, fallible indeed, but not incorrigible.' 1 About 
him clings a sort of romantic glamour. He returns 
to London from the West Indies the inheritor of a 
vast estate from his grandfather, who believed him to 
be a foundling left at his daughter's house in Jamaica. 
In reality Belcour was her son, and Stockwell, the 
merchant to whom the young heir betakes himself 
in London, is his father. The hero's fallibility ap- 
pears in his base design upon Louisa Dudley, daughter 
of a retired captain. Her brother Charles has been 
rejected by Lady Rusport on the score of poverty. 
Lady Rusport 's estate, however, belongs rightly to 
Charles Dudley, and she bribes her lawyer to destroy 
the will which discloses the truth. From such melo- 
dramatic premises it is easy to derive the conclusion. 
The scheming landlady who is responsible for Bel- 
cour's attempts upon Louisa is foiled and the benev- 
olent heart of the hero is rewarded with Louisa's 
hand. Major O'Flaherty, an Irish officer, who may 
have given Sheridan some hints for Sir Lucius 
O'Trigger, 2 discloses the secret of the will, and Charles 
Dudley and Miss Rusport come into their own. With 
the departure of the baffled Lady Rusport and Stock- 

^tockwell's final speech (V, 8), 1771 edition, p. 102. 

2 O'Flaherty's objection to an explanation of the quarrel to the in- 
tending duellists (V, 1), 'Out upon it, what need is there for so much 
talking about the matter; can't you settle your differences first, 
and dispute about 'em afterwards ? ' at least suggests O'Trigger's 
' The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands — we should only 
spoil it, by trying to explain it.' 
T 



274 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

well's disclosure that he is Belcour's father, the cur- 
tain falls with the double sentiment of united love and 
reunited family affection. If Belcour reminds one 
somewhat of Tom Jones, Cumberland uses him to 
point the lesson that sentiment has more than its own 
reward. 

The Fashionable Lover (1772), a sentimental comedy 
to which its author showed strong partiality, repro- 
duces many of the characters and situations of The 
West Indian — virtuous beauty under the treacherous 
care of a designing woman, the baffled intriguer ulti- 
mately reformed, property misappropriated, treachery 
unmasked, and sentimental love comfortably ce- 
mented by the restoration of fortune. Comedies 
such as these represent Cumberland at the height of 
his dramatic success before the storm had broken in 
full force upon sentimental drama. Throughout the 
century and through the first decade of the nine- 
teenth century, Cumberland remained a prolific play- 
wright. Among some fifty dramatic pieces are come- 
dies like The Jew (1794) and The Wheel of Fortune 
(1795), which continue to rescue distressed virtue 
from moral or pecuniary vicissitudes, heavy tragedies 
like The Battle of Hastings (1778), various adapta- 
tions, and numerous pieces which happily escaped 
print. 

Like Kelly, Cumberland consciously sought to make 
the stage a school of morality. Even after Sheridan 
had attacked 'the sentimental Muse,' there were not 
wanting critics to whom the cause of Cumberland 
was identified with the cause of morality. A com- 
munication to The Gentleman's Magazine, February, 



xvi THE RISE OF SENTIMENTAL DRAMA 275 

1778, entitled 'Animadversions on the Moral Tend- 
ency of The School for Scandal/ defends Cumberland 
in significant fashion : ' It has been said that this is 
a second attempt to destroy the taste for sentimental 
comedy revived by Mr. Cumberland. It will be 
readily acknowledged, that the plays of that gentle- 
man may tend to produce an affectation of sentiment ; 
but it is better to affect sentiment than vice : and Mr. 
Cumberland has judiciously executed the whole duty 
of an author, which is, not only to paint nature, but to 
paint such parts of it, as every good man would wish 
to see imitated.' It is not difficult to see wherein 
lay Cumberland's strength when sentimental comedy 
was at its height, since not even The School for Scandal 
could laugh out of countenance the ultra-moralists. 
Yet, in reality, Cumberland's own Belcour is reclaimed 
from quite as flagrant youthful errors as those of 
Charles Surface, and his heart beams with no greater 
benevolence than that of Sheridan's 'fallible, but not 
incorrigible' hero. Cumberland has the sentimental 
dramatist's lack of differentiation of character. He 
invests the good with a moral halo, and stamps the 
bad with the mark of Cain. For power of character 
he substitutes strength of sentiment, and for truth 
to nature an artificial manipulation of circumstance. 
The 'happy endings' of Cumberland's sentimental \ 
plays are not the logical outcome of natural comedy 
but are achieved by a tour de force of moralized melo- 
drama. Dramatic probability, as well as mirth, is 
sacrificed on the altar of sentiment. Sentimental 
drama, which was ready to borrow from tragedy its 
pathetic appeal, did not hesitate to capture destiny 



276 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, xvi 

with the enchanted bridle of sentiment. It was mas- 
ter of its own fate, for it not merely caused the sun 
to shine on the good and the rain to fall on the unjust, 
but it made temporal prosperity the handmaiden to 
morality. 



CHAPTER XVII 

GOLDSMITH AND THE REACTION IN COMEDY 

While sentimental comedy was attaining its bad 
eminence in the plays of Kelly and Cumberland, the 
forces of reaction found a powerful leader in Oliver 
Goldsmith (i 728-1 774). In The Present State of 
Polite Learning (1759), Goldsmith had indignantly 
resented the dominance of 'genteel comedy.' In The 
Good Natur'd Man (1768), he put into actual practice 
his theory as to the proper function of genuine 
comedy. Doubtless his .hostility toward sentimental 
comedy was intensified by the vexatious delays which 
thwarted his attempts to have Garrick produce his 
piece, and finally by Garrick's evident determination 
to have Hugh Kelly's False Delicacy overshadow The 
Good Natur'd Man. Goldsmith's belated comedy 
was eventually produced by Colman at Covent 
Garden Theatre, 29 January, 1768. Its moderate 
success proved that neither the gloomy forebodings 
of the manager and actors nor the high hopes of the 
author were fully justified. 1 In the hands of Shuter 
and Woodward, Croaker and Lofty were successful 
parts. Yet Powell failed to animate the role of hero, 
and the false delicacy of a sentimental audience could 
not brook the descent of comedy tb a scene so 'low' as 
that of the bailiffs. The discussion which had been 

1 The tenth performance was on 21 March. Genest, V, 204. 
277 



278 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

waged before the production of the piece as to the 
inclusion of the bailiffs' scene ended, after the actual 
test, in its being ' retrenched. ' 1 

The Preface to the printed edition of The Good 
Natur'd Man is not too brief to indicate Goldsmith's 
attitude toward sentimental drama and his own in- 
tention in comedy. 'When I undertook to write a 
comedy,' he begins, 'I confess I was strongly pre- 
possessed in favour of the poets of the last age, and 
strove to imitate them. The term, genteel comedy, 
was then unknown amongst us, and little more was 
desired by an audience than nature and humour in 
whatever walks of life they were most conspicuous. 
The author of the following scenes never imagined 
that more would be expected of him, and therefore 
to delineate character has been his principal aim.' 
In discussing his restoration, in the printed text, of 
the bailiffs' scene which had been 'retrenched' in the 
representation 'in deference to the public taste, 
grown of late, perhaps, too delicate,' he expresses the 
hope 'that too much refinement will not banish hu- 
mour and character from our's, as it has already done 
from the French theatre. Indeed the French comedy 
is now become so very elevated and sentimental that 
it has not only banished humour and Moliere from the 
stage, but it has banished all spectators too.' Despite 
protestation that 'upon the whole, the author returns 
his thanks to the public for the favourable reception' 
of his play, Goldsmith fails to disguise his disappoint- 
ment at the imperfect success of his comedy and his 

1 This scene was, however, included in the printed edition, and was 
restored 'by particular desire,' 3 May, 1773. Genest, V, 372. 



xvii GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 279 

impatience with the continued popularity of senti- 
mental drama. Yet the temporary victory of Hugh 
Kelly was but natural. While he sailed triumphantly 
with the favouring tide of sentiment, Goldsmith en- 
countered adverse currents. 

If contemporary criticism of The Good Natur'd Man 
was unduly severe, recent criticism has sometimes 
erred on the side of leniency. Judged by the test 
of modern stage revival, 1 Goldsmith's earlier comedy 
sustains no such comparison with She Stoops to 
Conquer as may be made between The Rivals and 
The School for Scandal. Croaker and Lofty remain 
excellent character parts, and the dialogue, though 
often laboured, is touched with Irish humour, but 
perhaps only the bailiffs' scene, Lofty's entrance, and 
Croaker's reading of the letter seem genuinely effective. 
Neither in dramatic construction nor in character- 
ization has Goldsmith fully developed his latent 
dramatic strength. Too much of the mechanism of 
plot is left crudely exposed to view. Especially 
clumsy is the scene in which Leontine and Olivia 
recount the events that have led to their flight from 
France and have involved them in an artificial maze 
of circumstance. Their dialogue is so obviously 
achieved for the benefit of the audience that it recalls 
Dangle's innocent query, in Sheridan's Critic, as to 
the opening dialogue in Puff's tragedy : ' Mr. Puff, 
as he knows all this, why does Sir Walter go on telling 
him ? ' and Puff's rejoinder : ' But the audience are 
not supposed to know any thing of the matter, are 

1 It was revived by the Yale University Dramatic Association in 
1903. 



280 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

they?' Goldsmith's very lines betray an uneasy 
consciousness of some of the improbabilities upon 
which the situation is made to rest. Leontine 
has been 'sent to France to bring home a sister,' 
but has substituted his sweetheart, Olivia. With 
an evident sense of obligation to account for the 
complete success of this deception, he remarks : 
'My sister, you know, has been with her aunt at 
Lyons, since she was a child.' A single letter from 
France would obviously disclose all. Accordingly, 
Leontine is forced to explain that 'her aunt scarce 
ever writes, and all my sister's letters are directed to 
me.' But there are other improbabilities besides 
those in exposition of plot. The butler who is ' drunk 
and sober ten times a day' seems hardly in place 
even in the easy-going household of Young Honey-, 
wood, and his drunken eccentricities of speech and 
conduct suggest farcical exaggeration. The most 
effective characters, Lofty and Croaker, are essentially 
'humour' characters, and Croaker's apprehensiveness 
of trouble seems rather overdone. The weakness of 
the amiable hero does not fully excuse his colourless 
portrayal. Young Honeywood has neither the vivac- 
ity nor the individuality of Charles Surface. Nor 
is such criticism too severe, since Goldsmith pro- 
fessed that his 'principal aim' was 'to delineate 
character.' In contrast with the sen timentali ties of 
contemporary comedy, The Good Natur'd Man un- 
deniably merits generous recognition. Yet, judged 
by Goldsmith's own standard of later achievement, 
it is a tentative dramatic experiment. If the touch of 
a master is at times discernible, there yet remain 
many marks of an apprentice hand. 



xvn GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 281 

The real difference between The Good Natur'd Man 
and the sentimental comedies of the period lies 
perhaps rather in general atmosphere than in the 
handling of plot and character. The mawkish 
excesses of sentimentality give way to healthier 
sentiment and heartier comic energy. There are 
flashes of Goldsmith's Irish humour as when, to 
Leontine's remonstrance, 'An only son, sir, might 
expect more indulgence,' Croaker rejoins, 'An only 
father, sir, might expect more obedience ' (I, 1) . In the 
excellent scene where Honeywood tries to pass off 
as officers the bailiffs who have just arrested him, 
he parries Miss Richland's embarrassing thrust, 
'The gentlemen are in the marine service, I presume, 
sir ? ' with unusual dexterity : ' Why, madam, they 
do — occasionally serve in the Fleet, madam ! ' Yet, 
despite the usual buoyancy and hearty spirit of the 
play, it is not difficult to find evidence of the uncon- 
scious influence of conventional drama upon even 
such a reactionary against sentimentality as Gold- 
smith. 

Young Honeywood, the 'good-natur'd, foolish, 
open-hearted' hero, whose faults — at least to faith- 
ful Jarvis — ' are such that one loves him still the 
better for them,' has traits of Tom Jones which have 
been seen in Kelly's sentimental hero and some phrases 
of sentimental diction. Under the doleful contagion 
of Croaker, he lapses in the opening scene into gloomy 
aphorisms, terminating a soliloquy on his hapless 
fate with a sigh, and at the final curtain he draws a 
moral from the error of his ways. Sir William 
Honeywood, the benevolent uncle — an earlier Sir 



282 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Oliver Teazle who remains ' for some time a concealed 
spectator' of his nephew's follies and dissipation — 
cannot resist the temptation that besets superior virtue 
to moralize on human frailties, and bestows his final 
benediction with this warning : ' Henceforth, nephew, 
learn to respect yourself. He who seeks only for 
applause from without, has all his happiness in 
another's keeping.' There is no need to lay undue 
stress on phrases that hastily precede the final cur- 
tain, yet both the moralized ending of The Good 
Natur'd Man and the surcharged sentiment of the 
concluding lines of both The Rivals and The School for 
Scandal show that not even Goldsmith and Sheridan 
wholly shook off the yoke of sentimental drama 
against which they were essentially in revolt. Only 
in She Stoops to Conquer does the genuine comic 
spirit maintain its triumph over sentimental drama 
to the very end. 

Notwithstanding its significance to the modern 
observer of dramatic tendencies, The Good Natur'd 
Man failed, for the moment, to endanger seriously the 
popularity of sentimental drama. The success of 
Hugh Kelly's False Delicacy was reenforced by that 
of Richard Cumberland's West Indian. The battle, 
however, was not to be decided by the outcome of a 
preliminary skirmish. The enemy's advantage in 
numbers and position may have postponed the 
crucial attack, but did not finally deter opposition. 
Goldsmith bided his time. In 1771 he was busy with 
the composition of a new comedy, but not until many 
months after its completion did he secure the pro- 
duction, on 15 March, 1773, of She Stoops to Conquer, 



xvn GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 283 

or The Mistakes of a Night. Despite the friendly 
offices of Doctor Johnson, Goldsmith's path had 
been beset with obstacles. Small credit attaches to 
Colman's ultimate production of a comedy whose 
advent he had hindered by procrastination and in- 
difference, and whose chances of success he had en- 
dangered by predictions of failure. In the admirable 
dedication of the printed edition of the play to Doc- 
tor Johnson, Goldsmith inserted a palpable hit at 
the faint-heartedness and apathy of his manager : 
'The undertaking a comedy, not merely sentimental, 
was very dangerous; and Mr. Colman, who saw 
this piece in its various stages, always thought it so. 
However, I ventured to trust it to the public.' This 
trust was not misplaced. She Stoops to Conquer 
proved so popular that Foote acted it during the sum- 
mer season at the Haymarket, and Colman con- 
tinued it next season at Co vent Garden. To-day it 
remains as one of the few plays since Shakespeare 
that hold the stage after the test of more than a 
century. 

The delays that attended its initial production were, 
doubtless, not so unfortunate as they were vexatious. 
Meantime, in December, 1772, Goldsmith had con- 
tributed to the Westminster Magazine his notable 
Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between 
Laughing and Sentimental Comedy. In it argument 
and satire combine to press the question 'whether 
the true comedy would not amuse us more' than 
'this species of bastard tragedy' called sentimental 
comedy. In February, 1773, the powerful weapon of 
burlesque was directed against sentimental comedy 



284 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

by the practised hand of Samuel Foote. The Hand- 
some Housemaid, or Piety in Pattens, professed to show 
how a humble heroine, ' by the mere effects of morality 
and virtue, raised herself to riches and honours.' 1 
In the spirit of Goldsmith's raillery at mankind's 
'delight in weeping at comedy,' Foote now declared 
that 'his brother writers had all agreed that it was 
highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed 
assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction ; and 
that creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of 
an audience to a vulgar and mean use of their muscles.' 
In his exordium to the audience, he promised that 
'not a single expression shall escape from our mouths 
that can wound the nicest ear, or produce a blush on 
the most transparent skin, not even a double entendre 
from an Irish Widow. .' 2 In thus burlesquing the false 
delicacies of moralized sentimental drama, Foote 
helped to prepare the way for the hearty laughter of 
Goldsmith's comedy. 

The main title of She Stoops to Conquer is an adapta- 
tion of a line from Dryden, and the subtitle, The 
Mistakes of a Night, was one of various early sug- 
gestions for naming the play. A few weeks before 
its production, Doctor Johnson wrote to Boswell, 24 
February, 1773, 'The chief diversion arises from a 
stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his 
future father-in-law's house for an inn. This, you 
see, borders upon farce.' 3 Farcical elements, indeed, 
are frequent in She Stoops to Conquer. Goldsmith 

1 Genest, V, 374~377- 

2 W. C. Oulton, The History of the Theatres of London, 1796, I, 21. 
3 Boswell's Life of Johnson, Hill edition, 1887, II, 205-206. 



xvn GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 285 

has sometimes been defended from the imputation 
of farce on the ground that he himself actually ex- 
perienced the mistake to which Johnson referred, but 
the improbability in plot lies not in the initial error 
of confusing a private house with an inn, but in 
the prolongation of the mistake. Mrs. Hardcastle's 
excessive timidity, likewise, ' borders upon farce' 
when she fails to recognize that ' Crackskull Common ' 
is, in reality, her own garden, and that the supposed 
highwayman is her husband. The story that Sheri- 
dan played on Madame de Genlis a trick like Tony's 
deception of Mrs. Hardcastle may be offset by the 
more familiar story that Goldsmith, upon his belated 
arrival at the theatre on the opening night of She Stoops 
to Conquer, heard ' a solitary hiss at the improbability 
of Mrs. Hardcastle, in her own garden, supposing her- 
self forty miles off on Crackscull common.' 1 Young 
Marlow's extreme bashfulness hardly accounts for his 
failure to recognize the mistress in the maid. Nor 
are Goldsmith's demands upon the credulity of 
the audience confined to postulates of the plot. 
The conception of Young Mario w as a lion among 
maids and a sheep among ladies is pushed beyond 
natural bounds. There is inconsistency, as Austin 
Dobson has well pointed out, 2 in the fact that 'Tony 
Lumpkin, who in Act IV is so illiterate as not to be 
able to read more than his own name in script, is 
clever enough, in Act I, to have composed the excel- 
lent song of The Three Pigeons ' — one stanza of 
which is reminiscent of Latin grammar and classical 

1 Forster, Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith, 1848, p. 631. 

2 Belles-Lettres edition of Goldsmith's plays, Introduction, p. xxviii. 



286 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

mythology. Such improbabilities in plot and charac- 
ter are more apparent to the reader than to the 
audience in the theatre, yet, while it would be folly 
to forget the theatrical effectiveness of exaggeration, 
it is easy to justify Doctor Johnson's dictum that the 
play ' borders upon farce.' 

Despite the presence of farcical elements, however, 
She Stoops to Conquer is, in a larger sense, natural 
comedy. Here is neither the artificial constraint of 
the conventional comedy of manners, nor the self- 
conscious diction of sentimental comedy. The at- 
mosphere is like that of The Vicar of Wakefield. 
The buoyant spirit already heralded in Farquhar's 
Beaux' Stratagem 1 finds in Goldsmith free utterance. 
The fresh air of out-of-doors sweeps through the 
windows of the old Hardcastle mansion. Mr. Hard- 
castle himself has the native simplicity and courtesy 
of a gentleman of the old school. With him sentiment 
resumes sincerity : ' I love every thing that's old : 
old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old 
wine; and, I believe, Dorothy, you'll own I have 
been pretty fond of an old wife.' The stage direction 
that bids him take his wife's hand is almost an im- 
pertinence. His very failings seem the natural out- 
growth of his simplicity. One turns gratefully from 
his wife's impatience with his 'old stories of Prince 
Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough' to the un- 
wavering loyalty of ' honest ' Diggory who has laughed 
these twenty years at his master's 'story of Ould 

1 Goldsmith, it may be noted, makes Miss Hardcastle remark : 
'Don't you think I look something like Cherry in the Beaux' Strata- 
gem?' (Ill, i). 



xvn GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 287 

Grouse in the gun-room.' Nowhere, indeed, can 
Goldsmith's natural humour be more readily observed 
than by contrasting Diggory with one of Sheridan's 
witty valets. Captain Absolute's servant Fag is as 
clever as his master — that is to say, as Sheridan 
himself. Diggory's humour is as unconscious as 
that of Dogberry. With him the conventions of 
society cannot override the laws of nature. Hunger 
is a primal instinct : ' Whenever Diggory sees yea ting 
going forward, ecod, he's always wishing for a mouth- 
ful himself.' If it be heresy to hint a preference for 
Mr. Hardcastle and honest Diggory as character 
creations, there is no need to deny Tony Lumpkin his 
accepted place as Goldsmith's most effective stage 
character. A country bumpkin, as perhaps his very 
name implies, and a 'mamma's darling,' Tony 
Lumpkin is yet the subject of laughter even more than 
its object. 'This is not altogether fool.' It is not 
wholly selfishness that prompts his sympathy with 
the lovers, nor is it the ' Squire's prestige that secures 
him the head of the table at 'The Three Pigeons.' 
And if wits must be measured, Tony is quicker to 
invent the hoax of the Hardcastle 'Inn' than Young 
Marlow is to detect it. The best of Goldsmith's 
characters, in fact, are so admirably portrayed that 
they might stand by themselves, independent of the 
necessities of plot. 

In dramatic presentation of women, Goldsmith 
seems less effective. In The Good Natur'd Man, 
Croaker and Lofty overshadow the other characters. 
In She Stoops to Conquer, the title lends a some- 
what fictitious importance to the part of the heroine. 



288 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Her effectiveness rests, to a marked degree, with the 
actress. Miss Hardcastle and Miss Neville mark 
an advance over Miss Richland and Olivia, but are 
not sufficiently differentiated. Mrs. Hardcastle, like 
Mrs. Croaker in the earlier comedy, is overdependent 
upon farcical appeal. There is, perhaps, a hint of 
more genuine vitality in Tony's Bet Bouncer, with 
'two eyes as black as sloes, and cheeks as broad and 
red as a pulpit cushion,' than in many of the women 
whom Goldsmith actually introduces on his stage. 
Goldsmith might sympathize 'when lovely woman 
stoops to folly,' but his insight into the springs of her 
character was not deep. If Miss Hardcastle's wit is 
nimble enough to stoop to conquer as a barmaid, 
she might conceivably have had wit enough to prevail 
in her own person as mistress. Both in plot and in 
character, then, Goldsmith tends to impose too much 
on the credulity of his audience. The postulates of 
his drama often suggest the exaggeration of farce 
rather than the subtler truth of the ' comedie humaine.' 
In dramatic structure, She Stoops to Conquer shows 
marked improvement over The Good Natur'd Man. 
Both plays, indeed, are alike in their usual preference 
for 'expectation' rather than for 'surprise' as the 
dramatic motive. The opening scene of the earlier 
comedy reveals Sir William Honey wood's plan to the 
audience; and the mistakes of a night delude only 
the dramatis personce. The audience knows that 
the Hardcastle house is not an inn, that the barmaid 
is Miss Hardcastle, and that Mrs. Hardcastle is not 
on Crackskull Common. The concealment of Tony's 
age, however, seems an artificial device to precipitate 



xvii GOLDSMITH AND REACTION IN COMEDY 289 

the final solution. Both plays, in fact, are compli- 
cated with improbabilities of plot and incident. Yet 
in She Stoops to Conquer the exposition is no longer 
crude, the threads of plot are more firmly knit, and 
the dramatic interest is more thoroughly sustained 
through a series of effective stage situations. The 
various transfers of Miss Neville's jewels are ingeniously 
contrived to stimulate and to heighten interest in 
their ultimate fate. Tony's mischievous tricks con- 
tribute directly to the development of the plot. Even 
the alehouse scene, which might find sufficient justi- 
fication as a background for Tony Lumpkin and as 
comic relief from the scenes in the Hardcastle house, 
supplies the misdirection of the travellers which in- 
volves them in the mistakes of the night. The con- 
tinued popularity of She Stoops to Conquer is the most 
obvious proof of its dramatic effectiveness. 

Though Goldsmith's comedy received the 'very 
kind reception ' which Doctor Johnson, even prior to its 
performance, thought it deserved, its success did not 
pass unchallenged. A few days after its production," 
the scurrilous Kenrick, not content with terming 
The Good Natur'd Man 'water-gruel' and She Stoops 
to Conquer 'a speaking pantomime,' turned his libel in 
the London Packet against Goldsmith's private life. 
Horace Walpole, in a familiar passage, 1 uttered a 
patrician remonstrance against Goldsmith's plebeian 
humour. ' Dr. Goldsmith has written a comedy — no, 
it is the lowest of all farces. It is not the subject I 
condemn, though very vulgar, but the execution. 
The drift tends to no moral, no edification of any kind. 

1 Letters of Horace Walpole, Toynbee edition, VIII, 260. 
u 



290 ENGLISH DRAMA chap, xvii 

The situations, however, are well imagined, and 
make one laugh, in spite of the grossness of the dia- 
logue, the forced witticisms, and total improbability 
of the whole plan and conduct. But what disgusts 
me most is, that though the characters are very low, 
and aim at low humour, not one of them says a 
sentence that is natural, or marks any character at 
all/ Happily, the 'power' of that one single mono- 
syllable — ' low ' — had waned since the day when 
Goldsmith had refused to bow down and worship at 
the altar of 'genteel comedy.' In the alehouse scene 
of his opening act, he deliberately bandied the epithet 
which had fastened itself on his former bailiffs' scene 
back upon his critics. In the comments of the ' sev- 
eral shabby fellows ' of ' The Three Pigeons ' upon Tony 
Lumpkin's song more is meant than meets the ear. 

First Fellow. The 'Squire has got spunk in him. 

Second Fellow. I loves to hear him sing, bekeays he never 

gives us nothing that's low. 
Third Fellow. O damn any thing that's low, I cannot bear it ! 
Fourth Fellow. The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any 

time. If so be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation 

accordingly. 
Third Fellow. I like the maxum of it, Master Muggins. 

What, tho' I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may 

be a gentleman for all that. May this be my poison if 

my bear ever dances but to the very genteelest of tunes : 

Water Parted, or the minuet in Ariadne. 

It was no longer necessary for Goldsmith to put the 
question ' which deserves the preference, — the weep- 
ing sentimental comedy ... or the laughing, and even 
low comedy ? ' The whirligig of time had brought in 
his revenges. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 

The dramatic work of Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan (1751-1816) marks at once the height of the 
reaction against sentimental drama and the most 
finished achievement of the English comedy of 
manners. In the warfare with sentimentality Gold- 
smith was an 'elder, not a better, soldier' than 
Sheridan. From the deliberate challenge, in the later 
Prologue to The Rivals, to the authority of 'the 
Goddess of the woeful countenance — The sentimental 
Muse,' to the mockery, in The Critic, of the 'edifica- 
tion' derived from the tearful travails of labouring 
sentiment, Sheridan constantly ridiculed the efforts 
of 'genteel comedy' to convert the theatre into a 
'school of morality.' Yet he was not merely a de- 
structive satirist, but a constructive dramatist. If 
he disarmed comedy of her weapon of sentiment, he 
whetted anew for her the sword of incisive wit which 
had been dulled by long neglect. With a brilliancy 
of dialogue unmatched in English comedy since Con- 
greve, and with a mastery of dramatic art unrivalled 
since Elizabethan drama, Sheridan reclaimed the 
Restoration comedy of manners and purged it of 
offence. 

Sheridan came into possession of drama by natural 
inheritance. His father, Thomas Sheridan, was by 

291 



292 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

turns actor, theatre manager, elocutionist, and lexi- 
cographer. His mother, Frances Chamberlaine, pro- 
duced, in the Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761), 
a novel which won Doctor Johnson's praise, and in 
The Discovery (1763) a comedy in which Garrick 
achieved distinct success. Her unfinished comedy, 
A Journey to Bath, seems to show in the person of 
Mrs. Tryfort the most immediate ancestress of Mrs. 
Malaprop. The familiar story of Richard Brinsley 
Sheridan's courtship of Elizabeth Linley, the favourite 
of the Bath concert stage, with its attendant circum- 
stances of elopement, duels, and journeys that ended 
in lovers meeting, is in itself a dramatic romance. 
Early evidence of Sheridan's interest in drama is 
to be found in his revision, under the title of Jupiter, 
of a farce, Ixion, written by his Harrow schoolmate, 
Halhed. A sentence from one of Halhed's letters 
shows that the idea of recasting the play in the form 
of a rehearsal, after the fashion set by Villiers in 
The Rehearsal, was due to Sheridan. Simile and his 
companions, who interrupt the progress of the re- 
hearsal with questions, evidently foreshadow Puff, 
Dangle, and Sneer. Jupiter failed to appeal to the 
managers, but in The Critic Sheridan realized the 
possibilities of its general framework. The collabo- 
ration of Halhed and Sheridan had, however, some 
tangible result, in the publication of a verse trans- 
lation of The Love Epistles of Aristcenetus (1771), 
which managed to achieve a second edition. With 
the removal of the Sheridan family to Bath, in 1770, 
Richard Sheridan's interest was soon diverted to the 
actual world of fashionable society. In Clio's Protest 



xvin RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 293 

he rhymed some of the reigning beauties of Bath, 
and in the form of a humorous epistle, written in the 
popular fashion of Christopher Anstey's New Bath 
Guide, he penned some occasional verses for the open- 
ing of the new Assembly Rooms. Unconsciously, 
perhaps, he was roughly sketching scenes which were 
soon to supply him with a setting for actual drama. 

After his marriage, Sheridan found necessity the 
mother of dramatic invention. Turning instinctively 
to playwriting for a livelihood, he found in Bath 
society a natural background for comedy. On 17 
January, 1775, The Rivals was produced at Co vent 
Garden Theatre. Various causes combined to make 
the first performance a failure — excessive length, 
incompetent acting, especially on the part of Lee, as 
Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and of Shuter, who was grossly 
ignorant of his lines as Sir Anthony Absolute, and 
opposition in the audience, perhaps partly malicious 
and certainly somewhat resentful of 'so villainous a 
portrait of an Irish Gentleman ' x as that of Sir 
Lucius. 'The Rivals, as a Comedy,' remarked The 
Public Ledger of 18 January, ' requires much castiga- 
tion and the pruning hand of judgment, before it can 
ever pass on the Town as even a tolerable Piece. ' 
In deference to the general verdict, the play was with- 
drawn and vigorously revised. The second 2 per- 
formance, on 28 January, was a marked success. 

1 This and subsequent critical excerpts are from contemporary 
newspapers and magazines, cited in full in the Appendix to the present 
writer's Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, pp. 313-320. 

2 The usual assertion that The Rivals was produced a second time be- 
fore its withdrawal for revision is fully disproved,, Ibid., pp. lxvi-lxvii. 



294 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Clinch was substituted for Lee in the part of Sir 
Lucius, and Shuter ' entirely recovered his credit.' 
The play itself, which had formerly been ' a full hour 
longer in the representation than any piece on the 
stage/ was now compressed ' within a reasonable 
compass/ and Sheridan 'very judiciously removed 
everything that could give offence in the character of 
Sir Lucius 0'Trigger. , Contemporary evidence as 
to both the extent and the effectiveness of the re- 
vision is abundant and conclusive. Equally successful 
were the performances of the revised comedy at 
Bath in March, and at Southampton and Bristol 
later in the year. Henceforth, The Rivals was firmly 
entrenched in popular favour. 

In the 'Prologue spoken on the tenth night/ 
Sheridan could now point boldly to the figure of 
comedy, and challenge moralizing sentimental drama- 
tists with these questions : 

Look on her well — does she seem form'd to teach ? 
Shou'd you expect to hear this lady — preach ? 

Must we displace her ? And instead advance 
The Goddess of the woeful cquntenance — 
The sentimental Muse ! 

In the play itself, the heroine of sentimental comedy is 
satirized in the person of Lydia Languish, who is 
ready to 'die with disappointment' when 'the 
prettiest distress imaginable ' and the prospect of ' one 
of the most sentimental elopements ' seem about to 
fade into the common light of conventional matri- 
mony. Fond visions of 'so becoming a disguise ! — so 
amiable a ladder of Ropes ! — Conscious Moon — four 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 295 

horses — Scotch parson — with such surprise to Mrs. 
Malaprop — and such paragraphs in the News-papers ' 
are prosaically shattered by her ' Aunt's consent and 
approbation.' The 'dear delicious shifts' to gain a 
moment's interview with her lover are now only a 
memory. 'How often have I stole forth, in the 
coldest night in January, and found him in the 
garden, stuck like a dripping statue ! — There would 
he kneel to me in the snow, and sneeze and cough so 
pathetically ! he shivering with cold, and I with 
apprehension ! and while the freezing blast numb 'dour 
joints, how warmly would he press me to pity his 
flame, and glow with mutual ardour ! — Ah, Julia ! 
that was something like being in love !' In one 
respect, indeed, Lydia differs from her languishing 
sisters of sentimental comedy, for she prefers a half- 
pay Ensign to a Captain with a comfortable fortune. 
'The tears of sensibility' had been wont to dry with 
alacrity when virtue found that it need not be content 
with its own reward. In the scene of Lydia's opening 
conversation with her maid, Lucy, Sheridan broadens 
his satire of sentimentality with playful hits at the 
sentimental novels of the circulating library. Lydia 
Languish is, in fact, more than a whimsical exaggera- 
tion of the heroine of sentimental comedy. She is, 
as Mrs. Malaprop might say, 'the very pine-apple' 
of sentimentality. 

Yet, like Goldsmith, Sheridan could not at once rid 
himself wholly of the contagion of the sentimentality 
which he attacked. Consciously, or not, he allowed 
the Julia-Faulkland underplot to retain in some 
measure the conventional phrasing of sentimental 



296 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

drama. Though Faulkland is a 'humour' character, 
in whom jealousy is carried to comic exaggeration, 
some of his and of Julia's speeches seem rather an 
unconscious echo of sentimental diction than raillery 
at its extravagance. Julia's speech which concludes 
the play may serve for a single illustration : ' While 
Hope pictures to us a flattering scene of future Bliss, 
let us deny its pencil those colours which are too 
bright to be lasting. — When Hearts deserving Happi- 
ness would unite their fortunes, Virtue would crown 
them with an unfading garland of modest, hurtless 
flowers ; but ill-judging Passion will force the gaudier 
Rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them, when 
its Leaves are dropt ! ' This sentimental strain no 
doubt largely explains favourable comments, even in 
the midst of general strictures upon the first per- 
formance of the play, such as the following : ' The 
character of Faulkland is touched with a delicate and 
masterly hand,' and ' Faulkland, in most respects, a 
new, and a very good character. . . . Julia (con- 
sidered in the line of elegant and sentimental Comedy) 
is an honour to the drama.' 1 The Morning Chronicle 
of 18 January goes so far as to assert that 'the charac- 
ters of Falkland and Julia are even beyond the 
pitch of sentimental comedy, and may be not improp- 
erly stiled metaphysical,'' and to compare 'the roman- 
tic vein of Lydia Languish' with that of Steele's Biddy 
Tipkin, to the disadvantage of Sheridan. Such 
discordant criticisms have at least this in common, 
that they recognize in the underplot of The Rivals 

1 Communication signed 'Impartialist,' in The Morning Post, 20 
January, 1775. 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 297 

some suggestion of the sentimental comedy against 
which Sheridan was, in the main, in revolt. 

The concessions to sentimentality which, in Sheri- 
dan's day, furthered the success of The Rivals, have 
now largely lost their appeal. Mr. Joseph Jefferson's 
acting version entirely omitted the part of Julia, 
retaining Faulkland only for the sake of his effective 
scene with Bob Acres. 1 The ease with which Mr. 
Jefferson excised most of the underplot suggests, 
in fact, some structural weakness in the play. Yet 
neither occasional traces of sentimental diction 
nor minor flaws in dramatic structure have seriously 
endangered the enduring vitality of The Rivals. 
The main action is developed through a constant suc- 
cession of effective stage situations. The quarrel 
scene between Sir Anthony Absolute and his son, 
the scenes of Mrs. Malaprop, and the duel would, in 
themselves, command interest, but their effectiveness 
is enhanced by their position as vital links in the 
chain of dramatic action. Like Goldsmith, Sheridan 
prefers ' expectation' to ' surprise ' as a dramatic motive. 
At the outset Fag explains that Captain Absolute 
and Ensign Beverley 'are one and the same person.' 
In the postulates of plot Sheridan seems more natural 
than Goldsmith. His use of 'mistaken identity' and 
' cross purposes ' results in a comedy of errors more 
plausible than Goldsmith's mistakes of a night. 

If there are farcical suggestions in The Rivals they 
arise rather from character than from plot. The 
very names of the dramatis personce suggest their 

1 For a full account of Mr. Jefferson's version, see the present 
writer's Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, pp. 323-325. 



298 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

kinship with ' humour comedy.' The accentuation 
of individual traits of character is, however, not 
confined to names like Languish, Malaprop, 0' Trigger, 
Absolute, Acres, Fag. Faulkland's 'humour' is un- 
reasonable jealousy, as clearly as that of Sir Lucius 
O 'Trigger is love of fighting. Furthermore, The 
Rivals introduces two highly developed artificial 
humours in the 'oath referential, or sentimental swear- 
ing' of Bob Acres, and in Mrs. Malaprop's 'nice 
derangement of epitaphs.' Like Dickens, Sheridan 
often outlines character with broad strokes that 
suggest caricature. Yet it should be remembered 
that it is easier to justify exaggeration in the dramatist 
than in the novelist, and that Shakespeare bestowed 
upon Mrs. Quickly abnormal perversity in the use 
of her 'oracular' tongue. Whatever aspersions may 
be cast upon her 'parts of speech,' Mrs. Malaprop 
remains, among a host of dramatic predecessors 
and imitators, the unrivalled 'queen of the dictionary.' 
Doubtless Sheridan lacks subtlety in the analysis of 
character, but he has an exceptional sense of theatrical 
effectiveness. The courage of Bob Acres dwindles to 
the actual vanishing point when he feels his valour 
'oozing out as it were at the palms of his hands,' 
but the very exaggeration of cowardice enhances 
the acting possibilities of the duel scene. The 
'passion' of Sir Anthony Absolute mounts to sheer 
hyperbole, but heightens the dramatic climax of the 
quarrel scene with his son. If there are suggestions 
of farcical exaggeration and unrestraint in Sheridan's 
delineation of character, he has, at least, extraordinary 
mastery of effective dramatic art. 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 299 

In dialogue, as in character portrayal, Sheridan has 
the same brilliant artificiality. He sacrifices natural- 
ness on the altar of wit. Unlike honest Diggory, Fag 
and David vie in wit with their masters. Pope's 
question — 'Tell me if Congreve's fools are fools 
indeed ? ' — might be applied to Sheridan. Lucy's 
cleverness outwits Mrs. Malaprop, and her arch 
coquetry captivates Sir Lucius. Even the sentimen- 
tal excrescences of the underplot do not long inter- 
rupt the brilliant vivacity of Sheridan's dialogue. 
The Rivals is the initial work of a dramatist of twenty- 
three. If it fails to hold the mirror up to nature, 
it has, none the less, splendid audacity and fertility 
of dramatic invention and wit. It remains a triumph 
of artificial comedy. 

On 2 May, 1775, Sheridan's brief farce, St. Patrick's 
Day, or The Scheming Lieutenant, was produced at 
Co vent Garden. It was written for the benefit of 
Clinch, the actor whose substitution for Lee in the 
part of Sir Lucius O 'Trigger had contributed much 
toward the ultimate success of The Rivals. The 
farce seems somewhat reminiscent of Moliere, with 
whose work Sheridan may have gained acquaintance 
through English translations. The dialogue con- 
tains some sprightly passages that are charac- 
teristic of the author, but, for the most part, Sheridan 
seems to have written it with his left hand. 

Far more significant was the production, on 21 
November of the same year, of The Duenna. For 
almost half a century no opera had rivalled the initial 
success of The Beggar's Opera. The Duenna surpassed 
the run of Gay's ballad opera by achieving seventy- 



300 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

five performances before the close of the season. Much 
of its success was due to the music which was largely 
composed by Sheridan's father-in-law, Linley. Sheri- 
dan also availed himself of the work of other musicians 
like Jackson and Harrington — a method of ' com- 
piling' opera of which Linley openly expressed his 
disapproval. Despite his lack of technical musical 
skill, Sheridan deserves no small share of credit in 
the lyric success of the opera. His verses are usually 
well adapted for singing, and many of his lyrics, 
such as 'Oh, the days when I was young,' and 'Had I 
a heart for falsehood framed,' long remained popular. 
Interspersed with pretty, if somewhat conventional, 
love songs and serenades are some snatches of rather 
rollicking and whimsical humour, as in some of 
the verses given to Don Jerome and Isaac, and in the 
opening trio which seems almost a parody of the 
heroics of grand opera. 

Though it is unfair to judge the libretto of an 
opera by the standards of ordinary drama, The 
Duenna is not without dramatic merits. The plot 
has a distinct basis of action and progresses to an 
effective solution. Some of the scenes, like those of 
Isaac's wooing of the Duenna, and his report to 
Louisa's father of his extraordinary success in court- 
ship, are well conceived. Moore declared that the 
'intrigue' was founded upon an incident in Wych- 
erley's Country Wife, and Sheridan, despite his 
assertion that he had never read a line of Wycherley, 
could hardly have been ignorant of Garrick's popular 
adaptation of the play as The Country Girl. Yet, 
in general, his use of disguise, mistaken identity, 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 301 

and cross purposes, betrays chiefly his general famil- 
iarity with stage traditions. The characters of 
The Duenna seem unfinished in comparison with those 
of The Rivals. Don Jerome, the stern and then 
relenting father, is but a shadow of Sir Anthony, 
and the jealous Ferdinand of Faulkland. Louisa 
and Clara are not clearly differentiated, but Isaac 
is a more finished portrait. The dialogue, though 
without sustained brilliancy, is at times enlivened with 
characteristic flashes of Sheridan's wit. In compar- 
ison with the comedies, The Duenna seems mediocre, 
but its libretto has a coherence of plot and a general 
dramatic consistency in lyric and dialogue unusual 
in light opera. As a rough illustration, it may be 
said to bear somewhat the same relation to most of 
the operas of its day as that of the Gilbert and Sulli- 
van operas to the general run of contemporary musical 
comedies. 

In 1776 Sheridan succeeded David Garrick as 
manager of Drury Lane Theatre. Not until 24 
February, 1777, however, were general expectations 
of a new play from the playwright-manager even par- 
tially realized in his adaptation of Vanbrugh's Relapse 
as A Trip to Scarborough. The attempt 

to draw some slender cov'ring o'er 
That graceless wit which was too bare before 

in a Restoration comedy that Jeremy Collier had 
selected for specific attack was hazardous. Yet, if 
Sheridan unfortunately cut away some sound tissue 
of comedy, together with its worst impurities, many 
of his excisions are effective. In various mechanical 



302 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

details, such as the condensation of the fifth act and 
the substitution of eighteenth-century 'local colour' 
for that of the Restoration period, his alterations 
may have proved effective, but he sacrificed something 
of the spirit and vivacity of the original. In The 
Critic he put into the mouth of Dangle, a playful 
hit that seems directed at his own effort to expurgate 
Restoration comedy, — ' Now, egad, I think the worst 
alteration is in the nicety of the audience ! — No 
double entendre, no smart innuendo admitted ; even 
Vanbrugh and Congreve obliged to undergo a bun- 
gling reformation ! ' Sheridan's adaptations from Kot- 
zebue, The Stranger (1798) and Pizarro (1799), belong 
to a later period that exceeds the limits of the present 
discussion, but, like A Trip to Scarborough, they give 
proofs of his practical sense of theatrical effective- 
ness without enhancing his reputation as an original 
dramatist. 

On 8 May, 1777, Sheridan triumphantly met the 
popular demand for original comedy with The School 
for Scandal. During the brief balance of the season 
it had a score of performances, and it was produced 
sixty-five times during the next year. It was a 
triumph of acting as well as of dramatic art. Even 
Horace Walpole, 1 in a letter of July 13, was com- 
pelled to unusual superlatives : ' To my great astonish- 
ment there were more parts performed admirably 
in The School for Scandal than I almost ever saw in any 
play. ... It seemed a marvellous resurrection of 
the stage. Indeed, the play had as much merits as 
the actors. I have seen no comedy that comes near 

1 Letters of Horace Walpole, Toynbee edition, X, 82. 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 303 

it since The Provoked Husband.' Two seasons later 
the treasurer of Drury Lane recorded the fact that 
the 'School for Scandal damped the new pieces/ 

The dramatic construction of Sheridan's comedy 
at once attracted favourable comment. On the day 
following its first production, the critic of The Public 
Advertiser (9 May) declared: 'The Situations are 
so powerfully conceived, that little is left for the 
Performers to do, in Order to produce what is called 
Stage Effect; and the Circumstance of the Screen 
and Closet in the fourth Effect, produced a Burst of 
Applause beyond any Thing ever heard perhaps in a 
Theatre.' To the same effect ran the review in 
The London Chronicle, 8-10 May : ' The fable is well 
conducted and the incidents are managed with great 
judgment. There hardly ever was a better dramatic 
situation than that which occurs in the fourth act, 
where Sir Peter discovers Lady Teazle in Joseph 
Surface's study.' The test of time has fully confirmed 
the unqualified praise thus bestowed on the 'screen 
scene.' It remains not merely the most notable 
scene in the English comedy of manners, but one of 
the masterpieces of English dramatic art. Only less 
noteworthy are the 'picture scene' in the house of 
Charles Surface, the scandal scenes, and the conver- 
sations between Sir Peter and Lady Teazle. Though 
more dependent upon the wit of the dialogue, they 
brilliantly illustrate Sheridan's dramatic skill. Ob- 
jection has sometimes been made to the scandal 
scenes on the ground that the dialogue does not always 
directly advance the action. Yet, apart from their 
brilliancy, they may find justification in furnishing 



304 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

the necessary background and environment for 
Lady Teazle. The not infrequent modern rearrange- 
ment which groups in the opening act several of the 
scattered scandal scenes may be a theatrical con- 
venience, but it is questionable whether it does not 
somewhat retard the exposition of plot and impair the 
continuity of background suggested in the original 
version. 

Like The Rivals, The School for Scandal seems to 
have been a natural outgrowth of Sheridan's ex- 
perience of fashionable society at Bath. The first 
rough sketch was headed, the slanderers. — A 
Pump Room Scene. The details of its evolution 
into finished comedy, fully supplied in Moore's Life of 
Sheridan, give ample evidence of Sheridan's pains- 
taking. Two plots were gradually welded together — 
one dealing with the scandal group, the other with a 
young country wife involved in matrimonial diffi- 
culties with an old husband. The process of revision 
was elaborate, not merely in the consolidation of plots, 
and in the refinement of dialogue, but even in the 
details of nomenclature of the characters. Just as 
the scene itself was shifted ultimately from the 
miniature world of fashion at Bath to the larger world 
of London society, Solomon Teazle and his wife were 
not suffered to remain bourgeois, but were invested 
with the dignity of rank. The youthful hero had 
half-a-dozen tentative names before he became 
Charles Surface. Even the minor characters were 
not overlooked — Spunge became Trip, and Spatter 
finally became Snake. 

The history of Sheridan's constant revisions of 



xvin RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 305 

his text effectually proves that The School for Scandal 
was not the product of genius that never blotted a 
line. Careless and indifferent in many ways Sheridan 
was undeniably. He could not be brought to superin- 
tend the preparation of the text of The School for 
Scandal for publication. Yet the traditional anec- 
dotes that have encouraged the popular impression 
that he struck off his pieces at white heat under forced 
draught are misleading. Much of the dialogue of 
The School for Scandal shows careful construction. 
The brilliant passages at arms between Lady Teazle 
and Sir Peter furnish a number of climaxes attained 
only by a clever manipulation of phrase throughout 
considerable preliminary dialogue. Such, for example, 
is the passage which culminates in Lady Teazle's 
'For my part, I should think you would like to have 
your wife thought a woman of Taste,' and Sir Peter's 
unhappy rejoinder, 'Aye — there again — Taste! 
Zounds ! Madam, you had no Taste when you married 
me ! ' Incessant brilliancy of phrase is, indeed, at 
once the strength and the weakness of Sheridan's 
dialogue. Trip is invested with his master's wit as 
readily as with his master's wardrobe. There are 
no dullards among the scandal-mongers. Relieved 
of the modern 'gags' which have been imposed upon 
him, even Moses has a pretty wit of his own that raises 
money-lending to a fine art. Rowley, the honest 
steward, quotes Shakespeare, and, after the exposure 
of Joseph Surface, vies with Sir Oliver in taunting 
Sir Peter, after the fashion of Gratiano, with his own 
phrases. Perhaps only the flitting figure of Maria 
seems out of place in this brilliant setting. 
x 



306 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

The School for Scandal marks the height of the de- 
velopment of the comedy of manners. It is the ar- 
tificial comedy of the Restoration purged of indecency, 
but undiminished in lustre. The ceaseless sparkle 
of its dialogue inevitably recalls Congreve. Investi- 
gation of the sources of its plot has resulted in es- 
tablishing its general kinship with the comedies of 
Congreve and Wycherley, and, especially in the case 
of the scandal scenes, some specific instances of direct 
indebtedness. Even the Lady Teazle-Sir Peter 
plot, which has perhaps been somewhat slighted 
in the zealous pursuit of the ancestry of the Surface 
brothers, is anticipated in the situation of Mr. and 
Mrs. Pinch wife in Wycher ley's Country Wife. Lady 
Teazle and Mrs. Pinch wife are both moths attracted 
by the flame of temptation, but Lady Teazle is not 
seared by the fire that ruthlessly consumes her 
Restoration prototype. Like the comic dramatists 
of the Restoration, Sheridan was indebted to Moliere, 
but, unlike them, he touched the comedy of intrigue 
with Gallic esprit undefiled by impurity. One of 
the phrases which Sheridan applied to Mrs. Crewe 
in the verses of The Portrait which he addressed to 
her in connection with The School for Scandal may 
well be taken to characterize the spirit of his own 
comedy — ' Not stiff with prudence nor uncouthly 
wild.' 

The School for Scandal is not merely the redemption 
of the artificial comedy of the Restoration from its 
grossness, but the triumph of the comedy of manners 
over sentimental comedy. Nevertheless, like The 
Rivals, it shows some lapses into the diction of senti- 



xvni RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 307 

mental drama. In his last speech, Charles Surface 
turns to Maria with these words : 'But here shall be 
my Monitor — my gentle Guide. — ah ! can I leave 
the Virtuous path those Eyes illumine?' As in the 
final words of Julia in The Rivals, Sheridan makes a 
somewhat lame and impotent conclusion. Yet the 
real spirit of his comedies is not to be sought in chance 
scene-tags. When, in the words of the Prologue, 
' Again our young Don Quixote takes the road,' and 
'seeks his hydra, Scandal, in his den,' Sheridan is , 
armed in the true spirit of comedy to attack the faults V 
and follies of society. Furthermore, the sententious 
moralizing of 'weeping sentimental comedy' is held 
up to ridicule in the person of the hypocrite, Joseph 
Surface. 'Joseph is indeed a model for the young 
men of the Age — He is a man of Sentiment — and 
acts up to the Sentiments he professes.' He is so 
habituated to the false gallop of sentiment that he 
gives sentiment free rein even when it is unnecessary. 
'O Lud,' interrupts Lady Sneerwell, 'you are going to 
be moral, and forget that you are among Friends.' 
The exposure of his hypocrisy is anticipated by Sir 
Peter's iteration of the phrase, ' He is a man of Senti- 
ment — Well ! there is nothing in the world so noble 
as a man of Sentiment,' and is emphasized by 
its taunting reecho when Sir Peter is confronted 
with the evidence of his mistaken judgment. And 
when Joseph Surface finally disappears in the last 
act, he is still 'moral to the last drop.' With him, 
moralizing sentiment retires baffled and discoun- 
tenanced. 

Sheridan's attacks on sentimental drama culminate 



308 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

in The Critic, or A Tragedy Rehearsed. Produced at 
Drury Lane, 30 October, 1779, as an afterpiece to 
Hamlet, it 'fully gratified,' according to The Public 
Advertiser of 1 November, 'the Expectation of the 
Public, which had presaged every Excellence from 
the Pen of their favourite Author.' This review of the 
first performance further remarks : ' The two leading 
Objects of this witty Stage Satire appear to be these — 
First, to expose the mock Comments of News-paper 
and other minor Critics ; and next, to ridicule the 
false Taste and brilliant Follies of modern dramatic 
Composition.' Sheridan's satire sweeps freely over 
the whole range of absurdities in drama and theatrical 
production. The very breadth and universality of its 
ridicule has given it enduring vitality. Burlesque is 
essentially ephemeral. The success of parody is 
dependent upon familiarity with the objects of its 
attack. Many of Sheridan's specific hits that were 
palpable to the audience of his day pass to-day un- 
heeded. Yet, in adapting to his own purpose the 
general framework of The Rehearsal, he was less de- 
pendent upon local allusion and definite parody than 
were Buckingham and his associates 

In those gay days of wickedness and wit, 
When Villiers criticiz'd what Dryden writ. 1 

Arber's reprint of The Rehearsal, with the key to the 
passages of contemporary drama burlesqued, is con- 
clusive testimony to the extent and elaborateness 
of specific parody. But The Critic, despite some pas- 
sages that seem definitely directed against the trage- 

1 Richard Fitzpatrick's Prologue to The Critic. 



xviii RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 309 

dies of John Home, 1 bends its chief energies to expos- 
ing general absurdities in the drama. To this effect 
runs the review in The Public Advertiser: 'The tedious 
and unartificial Commencements of modern Tragedies, 
the inflated Diction, the figurative Tautology, the 
Feu de Theatre of Embraces and Groans, Vows and 
Prayers, florid Pathos, whining Heroism, and, above 
all, the Trick of Stage Situation, are ridiculed with a 
Burlesque which perhaps may be thought rather too 
refined for the Multitude, but certainly is perfect in 
its Stile.' The fear that The Critic might prove 
caviare to the general was not realized. The perfec- 
tion of its style and the breadth of its satire have not 
been obscured even by some admixture of elements 
as ephemeral as local allusion and parody. 

From the outset, The Critic satirizes sentimental 
drama. Especially significant is the following pas- 
sage in the opening scene : 

Dangle {reading). Bursts into tears and exit. — What, is this a 
tragedy ! 

Sneer. No, that's a genteel comedy, not a translation — only 
taken from the French; it is written in a stile which they 
have lately tried to run down ; the true sentimental, and 
nothing ridiculous in it from the beginning to the end. 

Mrs. Dangle. Well, if they had kept to that, I should not have 
been such an enemy to the stage ; there was some edifica- 
tion to be got from those pieces, Mr. Sneer ! 

Sneer. I am quite of your opinion, Mrs. Dangle ; the theatre, 
in proper hands, might certainly be made the school of 
morality ; but now, I am sorry to say it, people seem to 
go there principally for their entertainment ! 

1 The Monthly Review, October, 1781, in reviewing the first printed 
edition of The Critic objects that its author has 'levelled some of his 
severest traits against the very best modern tragedy in our language, 
we mean the tragedy of Douglas ! ' 



310 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

Though Sheridan is primarily attacking sentimental 
drama in general, he seems to direct a particular 
thrust at Hugh Kelly. Sneer's words are but a mock- 
ing echo of the creed declared by Kelly, in the last act 
of False Delicacy — ' The stage should be a school of 
morality.' Among the sentimental dramatists, how- 
ever, Sheridan found an even more vulnerable target 
in Sir Richard Cumberland. In Sir Fretful Plagiary 
he drew to the life the portrait of the playwright whom 
Garrick termed a ' man without a skin.' The Memoirs 
of Richard Cumberland written by himself is an un- 
conscious revelation of the inordinate jealousy, self- 
esteem, and supersensitiveness of its author. Even 
Watkins, Sheridan's unsympathetic biographer, who 
volubly defended 'the moral excellence of the dramas 
of Cumberland,' reluctantly confessed 1 that 'the 
character of Sir Fretful Plagiary must be admitted to 
have exhibited a striking sketch, in many respects, 
of a dramatic writer, whose nervous sensibility often 
made him ridiculous.' Yet, like a genuine artist, 
Sheridan not merely reproduced an individual like- 
ness, but created a masterpiece of portraiture. Had 
Sir Fretful been merely a personal caricature, he could 
hardly have outlived Cumberland. 

Though The Critic was written only as an after- 
piece, it holds its own, in some respects, with Sheridan's 
comedies. It is the triumph of sheer wit over the 
usual transitoriness of burlesque. In brilliancy of 
dialogue it vies with The School for Scandal. Through- 
out the first act, save possibly in the brief interruption 
of the Italians and their interpreter, action is wholly 
1 Memoirs of Sheridan, I, 237. 



xvm RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 311 

subordinated to conversation. Even the bustle of the 
Italian episode is chiefly effective as a provocative to 
Dangle's admirable retorts, while Puff's description 
of the various sorts of 'puffing ' is a verbal tour deforce. 
In the two acts devoted to the rehearsal of Puff's 
tragedy, the action of the burlesque yields constantly 
to Puff's illuminating explanations to his interlocu- 
tors. Many even of the chance phases of The Critic 
have become proverbial, such as Sneer's 'No scandal 
about Queen Elizabeth, I hope,' and Puff's 'Where 
they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonder- 
ful!' In The Critical Review, November, 1781, a 
reviewer who did not hesitate to condemn the 'wan- 
toness of wit' in The Critic, declared: 'There is, in- 
deed, more true wit and humour crouded into this 
little performance, than has, perhaps, appeared since 
the days of Wycherley and Congreve.' Age has 
somewhat withered the local hits in The Critic, but 
custom has not staled its infinite wit and felicity of 
phrase. 

The extraordinary brilliancy of The Critic has often 
raised questions as to its genuine originality. The 
general framework, already tentatively tested in Sheri- 
dan's early burlesque, Jupiter, is taken from The Re- 
hearsal. Bayes and his companions, Johnson and 
Smith, are the rough models for Puff and his asso- 
ciates, Sneer and Dangle. A few verbal parallels in 
The Rehearsal and in various farces of Fielding and 
Foote, and a passage in Churchill's Rosciad show that 
Sheridan did not hesitate to appropriate to his own 
purposes some specific hints from earlier writers. It 
is unnecessary, however, to defend him by pervert- 



312 ENGLISH DRAMA chap. 

ing Sir Fretf ill's remark that 'a dexterous plagiarist 
may do anything.' If the 'pruning-knife,' or in Puff's 
emendation the 'axe,' of criticism were applied to all 
the foreign graftings on the native stock of The Critic 
its vitality would not be endangered. 

The Critic marks practically the conclusion of Sheri- 
dan's original dramatic work. At twenty-eight he 
was not merely arbiter of Drury Lane, but the fore- 
most of living English dramatists. Like Congreve 
who, at thirty, practically bade farewell to comedy, 
Sheridan early abandoned the career of active play- 
wright. During the long years of his public service 
his interest was in politics. His treasure lay in Drury 
Lane, but his heart was in Parliament. His occa- 
sional later efforts as a playwright are adaptations 
rather than original dramatic works. Pizarro (1799), 
based on Kotzebue's Spaniards in Peru, and embel- 
lished with touches borrowed from his own oratory, 
was a financial, not a literary, triumph. In diction 
and melodramatic machinery, it is open to some of the 
very attacks directed at Puff's tragedy. The lapse 
of twenty years since The Critic had brought no deeper 
maturity of dramatic conception. Sheridan's powers 
developed early. A dramatic artist, not a deep inter- 
preter of life, he brilliantly touched the surface without 
sounding the depths. There are more things in 
heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his phi- 
losophy. He was, indeed, no dreamer. His eyes 
sought the immediate foreground, not the far horizon. 
In the wood outside of Athens he might have recog- 
nized Nick Bottom and his fellows, while Oberon and 
Titania flitted past unheeded. Sheridan's world, in 



xviii RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 313 

reality, was Bath and London. Even Lydia Lan- 
guish, who sought a sentimental elopement to shock 
society, would have been a sorry exile in the Forest 
of Arden. Wit rather than humour, brilliancy 
rather than depth, satire rather than sympathy, art 
rather than nature, are the characteristics of Sheri- 
dan's comedies. Yet Beaumarchais is not to be mis- 
prized because he is not Moliere. Unable to follow 
Shakespeare through the depths of the 'comedie 
humaine/ Sheridan wisely chose, under the leader- 
ship of the comic dramatists of the Restoration, to 
pursue the easier path of the comedy of manners. 

Judged merely by the test of continued stage popu- 
larity, Sheridan stands to-day in English drama second 
only to Shakespeare. The professional verdict of 
the modern stage is well expressed in the words of 
Sir Henry Irving : ' Sheridan brought the comedy of 
manners to the highest perfection, and The School 
for Scandal remains to this day the most popular 
comedy in the English language. Some of the char- 
acters both in this play and in The Rivals have be- 
come so closely associated with our current speech 
that we may fairly regard them as imperishable. No 
farce of our time has so excellent a chance of immortal- 
ity as The Critic' : The history of the development 
of English drama since the reopening of the theatres 
in 1660 reaches a significant climax in Sheridan. He 
is at once the heir to the best traditions of Restoration 
comedy and the most notable English dramatist of the 
eighteenth century. 

1 W. Fraser Rae, Life of Sheridan, II, 322. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

These Bibliographical Notes aim (i) to indicate the chief 
texts, documents, critical editions, and other works cited in 
this volume, and (2) to suggest some useful references for the 
general student of English drama. An elaborate bibliography 
for the whole period of English drama here considered would 
far exceed the limits of this book. Fortunately, the extensive 
bibliographies in various volumes of The Cambridge History of 
English Literature meet, in large part, the demands even of 
special investigation. Their publication, since the inception 
of the present work, renders it unnecessary to reproduce here 
lists of the individual dramatic works of the different play- 
wrights, or of the multitude of biographical and critical works 
there mentioned. In the case of eighteenth-century English 
drama, a word of personal explanation seems unavoidable. My 
bibliography to chap. IV of vol. X of The Cambridge His- 
tory of English Literature supplies, in addition to the sections 
dealing with individual playwrights, a series of chronological 
lists of eighteenth-century collections of plays, of prologues 
and epilogues, and of theatrical histories, dictionaries, and 
similar works bearing on the period, together with other general 
material. ' A Bibliographical Note ' (pp. cxi-cxvii) to The 
Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan contains additional 
data. Hence it has been deemed advisable to omit here much 
material already presented elsewhere, and to consider the pres- 
ent commentary as primarily suggestive and explanatory. Yet 
it is hoped that these notes, together with the footnotes in the 
main body of the book, will sufficiently indicate specific texts 
quoted and definite sources of historical and critical material. 
Throughout this volume, quotations, references, and biblio- 
graphical descriptions are based directly on the actual texts 
cited. The more detailed ' Notes to Separate Chapters ' are 
here preceded by some suggestions as to general reference 

315 



316 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

works. For the ordinary reader it seems sufficient to show 
the character and utility of a few representative works. Such 
general hints, needless to say, are not for the specialist, much of 
whose material must often evade the confines of even the 
most generous bibliography. The present Notes will fulfil 
their aim if they give reasonable guidance for ordinary pur- 
poses of reference, and indicate, however imperfectly, the ob- 
ligations here gratefully acknowledged to many works which 
have proved of great assistance. 

GENERAL REFERENCE WORKS 

Bracketed names or titles in heavy capitals indicate abbrevia- 
tions for convenience of reference: e.g. [GENE ST] ; [BIOG. 
DRAM.]. In general, the place of publication, if not otherwise 
indicated, is London. 

The most important statistical record of English drama 
covering the whole period of this volume is 

Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in 
1660 to 1830 [by John Genest]. 10 vols. Bath, 1832. [GENEST.] 
This absolutely indispensable reference work is essentially 
a great theatrical diary, recording a very large proportion of the 
dramatic productions at the chief London theatres from 1660 
to 1830, supplying many synopses of plots, casts of characters, 
records of important actors, and a fund of general theatrical 
information, but attempting no comprehensive survey of the de- 
velopment of English drama. Its incidental critical comments 
are much less significant than its usually reliable statistics. 

Perhaps the most useful theatrical dictionary covering the 
whole period of this volume is 

Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse. 
. . . Originally compiled, to the year 1764, by David Erskine 
Baker. Continued thence to 1782, by Isaac Reed, F. A. S. 
And brought down to the End of November 181 1 ... by 
Stephen Jones. 3 vols. [Vol. I in two parts, usually bound 
separately.] 1812. [BIOG. DRAM.] The chief value of this 
work lies in its ' alphabetical account and chronological lists ' 
of English dramatists and their works. The two parts of vol. I 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 317 

deal with authors; vols. II and III, with separate dramatic 
works. Dates of plays are those of publication, and are less 
reliable than Genest's dates of first productions. The chrono- 
logical lists of works under individual author-headings are use- 
ful, but the biographical material is usually inadequate and 
often unreliable. 

An excellent general reference work for theatrical documents is 

A Bibliographical Account of English Theatrical Literature 
from the earliest times to the present day, by Robert W. Lowe. 
1888. [LOWE.] This record, in general, excludes plays, unless 
they include historical or critical matter, and accordingly 
supplements rather than duplicates Biog. Dram. Full and 
accurate citations of many title-pages and frequent cross- 
references make this work both reliable and convenient for 
constant use. 

An authoritative detailed critical study of Restoration and 
Queen Anne drama is included in 

I A History of English Dramatic Literature to the death of 
Queen Anne, by Adolphus William Ward. New and revised 
edition. 3 vols. London and New York, 1899. [WARD.] For 
discussion of English drama from the closing of the theatres in 
1642 to the death of Queen Anne in 17 14, see especially vol. 
Ill, chap. IX. An ample index increases the usefulness of 
this scholarly standard work of English dramatic history. 

A very considerable recent critical review of Restoration 
drama is included in 

The Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. VIII (1912) , 
chapters V, VI, and VII, by F. E. Schelling, Charles Whibley, 
and A. T. Bartholomew respectively. Cambridge. [CAMB. 
HIST.] These important chapters have valuable bibliogra- 
phies. References in the present work are to the original edi- 
tion, not to the New York reprint which often differs in pagi- 
nation. 

An excellent and comprehensive critical account of Restora- 
tion and eighteenth-century tragedy is accessible in 

Tragedy, by Ashley H. Thorndike. [In The Types of English 
Literature, edited by William Allan Neilson.] Boston and New 
York, 1908. [THORNDIKE.] Chapter VIII deals with ' The 



318 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Restoration ' ; chapter IX with ' The Eighteenth Century.' 
Each chapter ends with a suggestive ' Note on Bibliography.' 

A convenient general history of the London stage is 

History of the London Stage and its Famous Players (1576- 
1903), by H. Barton Baker. London and New York, 1904. 
[H. B. BAKER.] This work appeared originally as The London 
Stage : Its History and Traditions from 1576 to 1888. 2 vols. 
1889. Though not free from inaccuracies in quotations and 
other details, it furnishes useful material as to the London 
theatres. 

A more extended account of the English stage during the 
Restoration and eighteenth century is 

" Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage 
from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean, by Dr. Doran, F. S. A. 
Edited and revised by Robert W. Lowe. 3 vols. 1888. 
[DORAN, Annals.] This work appeared originally in two 
volumes, in 1864. Mr. Lowe's corrections and annotations 
notably increase the value of this useful, if rather discursive, 
popular history. 

The most trustworthy general reference work for biographies 
of dramatists and actors is 

Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen 
and Sidney Lee. Revised edition. 22 vols. London and 
New York, 1 908-1 909. [DICT. NAT. BIOG.] Some of the 
lesser playwrights and actors omitted in this work are included 
in Biog. Dram., and in some other cases Biog. Dram, furnishes 
fuller bibliographical information as to printed editions of plays, 
but the Diet. Nat. Biog. is the indispensable standard authority. 

The works mentioned above, it should be emphasized, are 
simply representative of important general reference authorities 
dealing definitely with some of the broader aspects of English 
drama and theatrical history discussed in this volume. Many 
of the works cited in the ' Notes to Separate Chapters ' are 
also of considerable scope. Thus, for random illustration, 
Colley Cibber's Apology is actually ' an Historical View of the 
Stage during his Own Time,' and, especially in R. W. Lowe's 
fully annotated edition, is a valuable reference work for a con- 
siderable period of English theatrical history. General his- 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 319 

tories and manuals of English literature have not been listed, 
but such volumes as those in the admirable series of Handbooks 
of English Literature, edited by Professor Hales, are useful. 

For fuller bibliographical notes on ' Theatrical Histories, 
Dictionaries, and General Records,' reference may be made to 
the section (VI) thus entitled in the bibliography to chap. IV, 
vol. X, of The Cambridge History of English Literature. 
Though that list more definitely concerns eighteenth- century 
drama, a large proportion of the works there cited cover also 
the Restoration period. Two contemporary theatrical records 
concerning the Restoration stage which did not fall within the 
limits of that bibliography seem sufficiently important to be 
listed here. 

Historia Histrionica : An Historical Account of the English- 
Stage, Shewing The ancient Use, Improvement, and Perfection, 
of Dramatick Representations, in this Nation. In a Dialogue, 
of Plays and Players. [By James Wright.] 1699. Quotations 
in the present work are from the British Museum copy of the 
original edition. Historia Histrionica is accessible in various 
modern reprints : No. XXX in E. W. Ashbee's Occasional Fac- 
simile Reprints, 1872 ; in vol. XV (1876) of W. Carew Hazlitt's 
edition of Dodsley's A Select Collection of Old English Plays; in 
vol. I (1889) of R. W. Lowe's edition of An Apology for the 
Life of Mr. Colley Cibber. 

Roscius Anglicanus, or, An Historical Review of the Stage 
. . . from 1660 to 1706. [By John Downes, prompter at the 
theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.] 1708. Quotations are from 
the Bodleian Library copy of the original edition. Roscius 
Anglicanus was reprinted, ' With Additions, by the late Mr. 
Thomas Davies,' in 1789. An excellent recent edition is 
Roscius Anglicanus. ... A Fac-Simile Reprint of the Rare 
Original of 1708. With an historical preface by Joseph Knight. 
1886. 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 

Bracketed names or titles in heavy capitals indicate abbreviations 
for convenience of reference. Asterisks indicate specific texts from 
which quotations have been made. 

CHAPTER I 

Throughout this volume references to Pepys are based on 

* The Diary of Samuel Pepys . . . edited with additions by 
Henry B. Wheatley. London and Cambridge, vols. I-VIII, 
1893-1896 ; vol. IX, Index, 1899 ; ' Supplementary Volume ' 
(' Pepysiana '), 1899. [WHEATLEY edition.] 

Anthony Hamilton's Memoires de la Vie du Comte de Gram- 
mont, Cologne; 17 13, appeared in an English translation by 
Boyer, in 1 7 14. Among numerous recent English editions of the 
Memoirs is 

* Memoirs of Count Grammont, by Count Anthony Hamilton, 
edited by Gordon Goodwin. 2 vols. 1903. [GOODWIN 
edition.] 

Charles Lamb's essay On the Artificial Comedy of the Last 
Century appeared originally in The London Magazine, April, 
1822, as one of a series of articles on The Old Actors, later re- 
arranged in the Essays of Elia. Quotations in the text follow 
* The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, edited by E. V. Lucas, 
vol. II (1903), pp. I4I-I47- 

Macaulay's essay on the Comic Dramatists of the Restora- 
tion appeared originally in The Edinburgh Review, January, 
1 841, as a review of Leigh Hunt's edition of The Dramatic Works 
ofWycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar (1840). Quo- 
tations in the text follow the Albany edition of The Works of 
Lord Macaulay, vol. Ill (1898), 'Leigh Hunt,' pp. 335-393. 
[For quotations see especially pp. 344-346.] 

320 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 321 

CHAPTER II 

The three ordinances of the Long Parliament against the 
stage are accessible in 

* The English Drama and Stage under the Tudor and Stuart 
Princes, 1 543-1 664, illustrated by a series of documents, 
treatises and poems. [Edited by W. C. Hazlitt.] Printed for 
the Roxburghe Library. 1869. [HAZLITT, English Drama.] 

* The Actors Remonstrance, or Complaint : for the silencing 
of their profession, and banishment from their severall Play- 
houses. 1643. [No. IV in E. W. Ashbee's Occasional Fac- 
simile Reprints, 1869.] 

The Actors Remonstrance is also reprinted in Hazlitt, English 
Drama, pp. 259-265. 

The drolls should be investigated in Kirkman's collections, 
here listed from the Bodleian Library copies : 

(1) The Wits, or, Sport upon Sport. In Select Pieces of 
Drollery, Digested into Scenes by way of Dialogue. Together 
with Variety of Humours of several Nations, fitted for the pleas- 
ure and content of all Persons, either in Court, City, Countrey, 
or Camp. The like never before Published. Part I. 1662. 

[Stationer's Address to the Readers signed ' H. Marsh.'] 
This collection (pp. 186) includes 27 ' Droll-Humours ' with 
' A Catalogue of the several Droll-Humours, from what Plays 
collected, and in what page to be found in this Book.' 

(2) The Wits ; or, Sport upon Sport. In Selected Pieces of 
Drollery . . . 1672. [Address ' To the Readers' signed ' Fran- 
cis Kirkman.'] This collection contains 10 pieces, occupying 
80 pages, followed, in the Bodleian copy, by a Preface signed 
1 Era. Kirkman, 7 and a reprint (pp. 186) of the 27 Droll-Humours 
of the 1662 edition. 

(3) The Wits; or, Sport upon Sport. 1673. [Full title 
quoted in text of chapter II. ] This collection contains Kirk- 
man's Preface and the 10 pieces (here occupying 56 pages) 
printed in the 1672 edition. 

jyAvenant. 

Quotations from D'Avenant's plays are taken from the Bod- 
leian Library copies of the original editions. The Drama- 

Y 



322 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

tists of the Restoration Series includes the following critical 
edition : 

The Dramatic Works of Sir William D'Avenant, with prefa- 
tory memoir and notes [by James Maidment and W. H. Logan]. 
5 vols. Edinburgh and London. 1 872-1 874. 

A recent edition of The Siege of Rhodes, with an excellent 
introduction and bibliography dealing with D'Avenant's dra- 
matic work, is 

Love and Honour and The Siege of Rhodes, by Sir William 
D'Avenant, edited by James W. Tupper (Belles- Lettres Series), 
Boston, U. S. A., and London. 1909. 

CHAPTER III 

The text of the royal patent of 21 August, 1660, is accessible 
in Edmond Malone's * Historical Account^of the Rise and Prog- 
ress of the English Stage in his edition of The Plays and 
Poems of William Shakspeare, 1790, vol. I, part II, pp. 244-246. 
Here also may be found (pp. 239-247) the documents in the 
controversy between Sir Henry Herbert and the patentees. 

For D ' Avenant, see Notes to Chapter II. Thomas Killigrew's 
Comedies and Tragedies [and tragi-comedies] appear in the folio 
edition of 1664. 

The * Dramatists of the Restoration Series, edited by James 
Maidment and W. H. Logan, includes the dramatic works of 
both John Tatham, Edinburgh and London, 1879; and John 
Wilson, Edinburgh and London, 1874. 

Abraham Cowley's plays are reprinted in 

* Abraham Cowley, Essays, Plays and Sundry Verses, the 
text edited by A. R. Waller. Cambridge, 1906. (In Cam- 
bridge English Classics.) 

Richard Flecknoe's A Short Discourse of the English Stage 
is appended to Love's Kingdom. A Pastoral Trage-Comedy, 
1664. Quotations are from the Bodleian Library copy. Fleck- 
noe's Discourse was reprinted, in 1869, in W. C. Hazlitt's 
English Drama and Stage, pp. 275-281. 

For discussion of Continental influences upon early Restora- 
tion drama and opera in England, see Ward, III, 301-324, and 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 323 

Schelling, chap. V, in vol. VIII of The Cambridge History of 
English Literature. Professor Schelling's survey of Spanish 
influences is especially suggestive, and is supplemented, in his 
bibliography, with a special section, ' Spanish Influences on 
English Drama.' For general references to French drama, 
C. H. Conrad Wright's A History of French Literature (New 
York and London, 191 2) will be found valuable. 



CHAPTER IV 

Quotations from Dryden's plays are based on the text of 

* The Works of John Dryden, illustrated with notes, histori- 
cal, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author, by Sir 
Walter Scott, Bart. Revised and corrected by George Saints- 
bury. 18 vols. Edinburgh [vols. XV-XVIII, London], 1882- 1 
1893. [SCOTT-SAINTSBURY edition.] J 

Quotations from Dryden's essays are based on the text of 

* Essays of John Dryden, selected and edited by W. P. Ker. 
2 vols. Oxford, 1900. [KER.] These are standard editions. 

For critical biographies, see especially Dryden, by G. Saints- 
bury {English Men of Letters Series), 1881, and Dryden (chap. I, 
in vol. VIII of Camb. Hist.), by A. W. Ward. V This volume 
contains an excellent bibliography of Dryden, by Henry B. 
Wheatley. 

For discussion of Orrery's works, see 

Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery und seine Dramen zur Geschichte 
des heroischen Dramas in England, von Eduard Siegert. 
(Wiener Beitrdge zur englischen Philologie, XXIII). Wien und 
Leipzig, 1906. y 

For discussion of English heroic drama, see P. Holzhausen, / 
Dryden's heroisches Drama (Englische Studien, vols. XIII, 
Heilbron, 1889; XV-XVI, Leipzig, 1891-1892) ; L. N. Chase, 
The English Heroic Play, New York, 1903 ; C. G. Child, The 
Rise of the Heroic Play (Modern Language Notes, Baltimore, 
1904) ; and J. W. Tupper, The Relation of the Heroic Play to 
the Romances of Beaumont and Fletcher (Publications of the 
Modem Language Association of America, Baltimore, 1905). 



324 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

For other references as to Dryden and the English heroic 
drama, see Wheatley's bibliography, already cited. 

The text of The Rehearsal, with key to the passages of drama 
which it parodies, is accessible in Arber's series of English Reprints: 

* George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham. The Re- 
hearsal . . . with illustrations from previous plays, etc. Care- 
fully edited by Edward Arber. London, 1868. 

The Rehearsal is included in Selected Dramas of John Dryden 
. . . edited with introduction and notes by George R. Noyes. 
Chicago, New York [19 10]. 



CHAPTER V 
Etherege. 

* The Works of Sir George Etheredge, Plays and Poems, 
edited, with critical notes and introduction by A. Wilson Verity, 
1888. 

Edmund Gosse's valuable article on ' Sir George Etheredge,' 
in his Seventeenth-Century Studies, 1883, pp. 233-265, deserves 
especial notice on account of its recognition of the importance 
of a dramatist who had not then received adequate critical 
attention. 

Etherege's Letterbook, effectively quoted by both Gosse and 
Verity, is in the British Museum. 

A considerable study (pp. 278) of Etherege is Sir George 
Etheredge, sein Leben, seine Zeit und seine Dramen, von Vin- 
cenz Meindl (Wiener Beitrage zur englischen Philologie, XIV). 
Wien und Leipzig, 190 1. 

Wycherley. 

* William Wycherley, edited, with an introduction and notes, 
by W. C. Ward. Unexpurgated edition {Mermaid Series), 1888. 

Wycherley 's plays are accessible also in The Dramatic Works 
of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar. With bio- 
graphical and critical notices by Leigh Hunt, 1840. (Other 
editions, 1849 and 1851.) Leigh Hunt's work, though now 
superseded by later critical editions of the separate dramatists, 
is significant both because it was long a convenient standard 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 325 

of reference and because it prompted Macaulay's review essay 
on the Comic Dramatists of the Restoration, sometimes entitled 
Leigh Hunt. 

A study (pp. 74) of Wycherley, with especial attention to 
Moliere's influence on his plays, is William Wycherley's Leben 
und dramatische Werke. Mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung 
von Wycherley als Plagiator Moliere's. Von Dr. Johannes 
Klette. Minister, 1883. 

Shadwell. 

* Thomas Shadwell, edited, with an introduction and notes, 
by George Saintsbury {Mermaid Series). London and New 
York [1903]. This excellent edition includes only The Sullen 
Lovers, A True Widow, The Squire of Alsatia, and Bury Fair. 

Quotations from plays not in Saintsbury's edition are from 
the original editions of the separate plays. 

A review of ShadwelPs dramatic works, ' attempting to put 
the reputation of this author on its true level, and vindicate 
his memory from that charge of dulness which hangs over it/ 
and containing considerable excerpts from the plays, appeared 
in 1828, in The Retrospective Review, Second Series, vol. II, 
pp. 55-96. 

An article on Thomas Shadwell in two sections, the latter 
dealing chiefly with The Lancashire Witches, appeared in 1873, 
in The New Monthly Magazine, vol. Ill, New Series, pp. 292- 
297; 353Sfa- 

CHAPTER VI 

For bibliographical commentary on Dryden, see Notes to 
Chapter IV. 

Quotations from Thomas Rymer's critical works are taken 
from the original editions whose titles and dates are indicated 
in the main text. Selections from Rymer's treatises on the 
drama are given in Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century. 
Edited by J. E. Spingarn. 3 vols. Oxford, 1 908-1 909. Vols. 
II and III of this excellent work include many passages rep- 
resentative of dramatic criticism during the Restoration 
period. 



326 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

Quotations from Saint-Evremond's critical writings are 
from the 17 14 London edition of his Works, ' Made English from 
the French Original,' and containing a life of the author by P. 
Des Maizeaux. Saint-Evremond's (Euvres Meslees had ap- 
peared in a two- volume London edition in 1705, two years after 
his death. For other editions, see Sir Frank T. Marzials's 
article on Saint-Evremond in Diet. Nat. Biog. and the entries 
in the British Museum catalogue. 

Lee. 

Quotations from Lee's plays are taken from the original 
editions of the separate plays. The Yale University Library 
has an edition of The Works of Mr. Nathaniel Lee, in one 
Volume [containing 13 tragedies], 1694 [variously dated 
separate title-pages]. This antedates the editions of Lee's 
Works cited in the Diet. Nat. Biog. and in the Camb. Hist. 
bibliography. There is no recent reprint of Lee's complete 
dramatic works. For critical treatises, see Camb. Hist, bibliog- 
raphy, vol. VIII, pp. 437-438. 

Otway. 

* Thomas Otway, with an introduction and notes, by the Hon. 
Roden Noel. Unexpurgated edition (Mermaid Series) , 1888. 

The Orphan and Venice Preserved, by Thomas Otway, 
edited by Charles F. McClumpha (Belles- Lettres Series) , Boston, 
U. S. A., and London [1908]. This edition contains useful notes 
and bibliography. 

Edmund Gosse's excellent essay, Thomas Otway, which origi- 
nally appeared in The Cornhill Magazine, December, 1877, is 
reprinted in his Seventeenth-Century Studies, 1883, pp. 269-305. 

CHAPTER VII 

The field of Restoration Pastoral drama is admirably surveyed 
in 

English Pastoral Drama, from the Restoration to the date of 
the publication of the " Lyrical Ballads " (1 660-1 798), by 
Jeannette Marks [1908]. An unusually full bibliography 
increases the merits of this work. 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 327 

The works of many of the minor playwrights mentioned in 
this chapter have not had recent critical reprint. The Dram- 
atists of the Restoration Series, edited by James Maidment and 
W. H. Logan, includes the dramatic works of John Crowne, 
4 vols., Edinburgh and London, 1873-1874; and John Lacy, 
Edinburgh and London, 1875. The dramatic work of Mrs. 
Behn is represented in The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the 
ingenious Mrs. Aphra Behn. With Life and Memoirs. 6 vols. 
1871. 

An edition of The Dramatic Works of Sir Charles Sedley, 
2 vols., appeared in 1776; and of Southerne's Plays, 3 vols., 
in 1774. Settle is the subject of a special monograph, Elkanah 
Settle, his life and works. By F. C. Brown, Chicago, 1910. Mrs. 
Philips is the subject of an essay, ' The Matchless Orinda,' in 
Gosse's Seventeenth-Century Studies, 1883, pp. 205-230. 

For further bibliographical material concerning minor Res- 
toration dramatists, see bibliographies to chaps. V, VI, and 
VII, in vol. VIII of Camb. Hist. For further critical material 
see these chapters and Ward. 



CHAPTER VIII 

For bibliographical commentary on the Collier controversy, 
see Notes to Chapter IX. 

Congreve. 

* William Congreve, edited by Alex. Charles Ewald (Mer- 
maid Series), 1887. 

The Comedies of William Congreve, with an introduction by 
G. S. Street (English Classics, edited by W. E. Henley). 2 vols. 
1895. 

William Congreve, with introduction by William Archer 
(Masterpieces of the English Drama, F. E. Schelling, General 
Editor). New York, Cincinnati, Chicago [1912]. This omits 
The Old Bachelor. The excellent introduction includes an 
extended analysis of the dramatic structure of Congreve's plays. 

A valuable critical biography is Life of William Congreve, by 
Edmund Gosse (Great Writers Series), 1888. This contains 



328 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

a bibliography by John P. Anderson. A considerable study 
(pp. 179) of Congreve is William Congreve, sein Leben und 
seine Lustspiele, von D. Schmid (Wiener Beitrage zur englischen 
Philologie, VI). Wien und Leipzig, 1897. 

A significant interpretation of Congreve's comedy is given 
in George Meredith's Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the 
Comic Spirit, originally delivered as a lecture, first published in 
The New Quarterly Magazine, April, 1877, and printed in book 
form, 1897. 

Vanbrugh. 

* Sir John Vanbrugh, edited, with an introduction and notes, 
by A. E. H. Swaen {Mermaid Series), 1896. This includes 
only the chief plays. 

Sir John Vanbrugh, edited by W. C. Ward. 2 vols. 1893. 
This full and valuable critical edition includes a reprint of 
Vanbrugh's A Short Vindication of the Relapse and the Provok'd 
Wife, from Immorality and Profaneness. 

A considerable study (pp. 199) of Vanbrugh is John Van- 
brughs Leben und Werke. Von Max Dametz (Wiener Beitrage 
zur englischen Philologie, VII). Wien und Leipzig, 1898. 

Farquhar. 

George Farquhar, edited, with an introduction and notes, by 
William Archer (Mermaid Series), London and New York [1906]. 
This includes only the chief plays. The introduction is valuable. 

The Dramatic Works of George Farquhar, edited, with life 
and notes, by Alex. Charles Ewald. 2 vols. 1892. [Vol. II 
revised by Robert W. Lowe. Both volumes actually appeared 
in 1891.] 

The Temple Dramatists Series includes The Beaux-Stratagem 
. . . edited with a Preface and Notes by H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon. 
1898. 

A considerable study (pp. 372) of Farquhar is George Far- 
quhar, sein Leben und seine Original-Dramen, von Dr. D. 
Schmid (Wiener Beitrage zur englischen Philologie, XVIII). 
Wien und Leipzig, 1904. 

The plays of the three dramatists discussed in this chapter 
are accessible in Leigh Hunt's edition, The Dramatic Works of 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 329 

Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar (see Notes to 
Chapter V, under Wycherley). A critical review of the four 
dramatists grouped in Leigh Hunt's edition is included in 
* Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By William Haz- 
litt. 181 9. (Lecture IV. On Wycherley, Congreve, Van- 
brugh, and Farquhar, pp. 133-176). A very recent and exten- 
sive treatment of Etherege and the four dramatists just named 
is given in The Comedy of Manners, by John Palmer, 1913. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Collier Controversy. 

The bibliography to chap. VI in vol. VIII of Camb. Hist. 
contains a special section (pp. 432-434) entitled ' Jeremy Collier 
and the Controversy concerning the Morality of the Stage.' 
A good running account of the controversy is in Edmund 
Gosse's Life of William Congreve, chap. III. 

Colley Cibber. 

Quotations from Colley Cibber's plays are taken from the 
original editions. 

Colley Cibber's Apology (1740) is best consulted in 
*An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, written by 
himself. A new edition with notes and supplement, by Robert 
W. Lowe. 2 vols. 1889. This includes also reprints of James 
Wright's Historia Histrionica (1699), and of Anthony Aston's 
A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esq. : his Lives of the late 
Famous Actors and Actresses. Mr. Lowe's fidelity to Cibber's 
text preserves the full vitality of the original, while his valuable 
annotations are a safeguard against numerous uncertainties or 
inaccuracies in Cibber's statements. 

Mrs. Centlivre. 

Mrs. Centlivre's plays are accessible in The Dramatic Works 
of the celebrated Mrs. Centlivre, with a New Account of her Life. 
3 vols. 1872. This is a reprint of the edition of 1 760-1761. 

A considerable study of her comedies by Robert Seibt is 
presented in (1) Die Komodien der Mrs. Centlivre. Halle a. 



330 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

S. 1909. This section (pp. 58) is essentially a summary of 
plots and characters ; (2) articles in Anglia, Halle a. S., XXXII 
(1909), 434-480, and XXXIII (1910), 77-119. These sections 
present a critical study of the comedies. 

Steele. 

Richard Steele, edited, with an introduction and notes, by 
G. A. Aitken {Mermaid Series), London and New York, 1894. 
This excellent edition contains, in addition to the chief plays, 
two fragments, The School of Action, and The Gentleman, and 
an appendix which reprints various documents concerning 
Steele's relations with the theatre. 

A very valuable and exhaustive critical biography of Steele is 

Life of Richard Steele, by George A. Aitken. 2 vols. 1889. 
A copious bibliography is given in vol. II, pp. 387-428. 

A briefer biography is Richard Steele, by Austin Dobson 
{English Worthies Series, edited by Andrew Lang), 1886. For 
further material, see bibliography to chap. II in vol. IX (pp. 
439-443) of Camb. Hist. 



CHAPTER X 

Rowe. 

*The Fair Penitent and Jane Shore, by Nicholas Rowe, 
edited by Sophie Chantal Hart {Belles- Lettres Series). Boston, 
U. S. A., and London, 1907. This contains a useful introduc- 
tion and bibliography. 

Quotations from other plays of Rowe are from The Dramatick 
Works of Nicholas Rowe. 2 vols. 1720. 

Addison. 

Quotations from Cato are from the original edition of 17 13. 
' Addison's Cato ' is the subject of one of the discussions (pp. 
39-70) in Famous Plays, with a discourse by way of prologue on 
The Playhouses of the Restoration. By J. Fitzgerald Molloy. 
1886. [The first ' discourse ' in this volume is actually entitled 
1 Congreve's Love for Love,' but deals primarily with the 
' Playhouses of the Restoration.'] 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 331 

Addison's more important critical utterances on drama and 
opera are conveniently grouped in * Addison, Selections from 
Addison's papers contributed to the Spectator, edited with 
introduction and notes by Thomas Arnold {Clarendon Press 
Series, 1866, etc.). Oxford. 

A considerable study of Addison is included in Le Public et 
les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au dix-huitieme Siecle, 
1660-1744, par Alexandre Beljame. Paris, 1883. [Deuxieme 
edition augmentee d'un Index. Paris, 1897.] The first 
chapter of this work, ' Dryden et Le Theatre' (pp. 1-143), con- 
tains much valuable material concerning Restoration drama, 
and the bibliography (pp. 415-507, 1897 edition) of the entire 
work is full and precise. 

A convenient biography is Addison, by W. J. Courthope 
{English Men of Letters Series). 1884. For further biblio- 
graphical material concerning Addison see bibliography (pp. 
434-439) to chap. II in vol. IX of Catnb. Hist. 



CHAPTER XI 

For full account and bibliography of English dramatic trans- 
lations from Pierre and Thomas Corneille and Racine, see 
Corneille and Racine in England, by Dorothea Frances Can- 
field. New York and London, 1904. 

For contemporary accounts of eighteenth-century pan- 
tomimes, see John Weaver's History of the Mimes and Panto- 
mimes, 1728; Colley Cibber's Apology, 1740 [Lowe edition, II, 
179 ff .] ; Thomas Davies's Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, 
1780, vol. I, chap. X; John Jackson's History of the Scottish 
Stage, Edinburgh, 1793 [especially the account of John Rich, 
PP- 363-369]- 
Gay. 

Quotations from The Beggar's Opera are from the first edition 
of 1728 of which there are different impressions. The King's 
Library, edited by Professor Gollancz, contains a convenient 
reprint of The Beggar's Opera, edited by G. Hamilton Macleod, 
with preface, notes, and bibliography, 1905. 



332 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

1 John Gay's Beggar's Opera ' is the subject of a discussion 
(pp. 73-100) in Molloy's Famous Plays, 1886. A critical study 
and reprint of Gay's operas is John Gay's Singspiele mit Ein- 
leitung und Anmerkungen . . . von Gregor Sarrazin. Weimar, 
1898 (pp. xxxii + 209). A noteworthy recent volume is " Polly 
Peachum," being the story of Lavinia Fenton (Duchess of 
Bolton) and " The Beggar's Opera," by Charles E. Pearce 
[1913]. This presents much material drawn from newspapers 
and other contemporary sources, and contains a condensed 
' List of Authorities,' pp. 373-376. 



CHAPTER XII 

Except in the case of Lillo, quotations from plays in Chapter 
XII are taken from the original editions of the individual plays. 

A considerable study of Young is Le Poete Edward Young 
(168 '3-1765), Etude sur sa Vie et ses CEuvres, par W. Thomas. 
Paris, 1901. An extensive study (pp. 678) of Thomson is 
James Thomson, sa Vie et ses CEuvres, par Leon Morel. Paris, 
1895. For further bibliographical information see bibliog- 
raphies in vol. IX of Camb. Hist.: of Young (chap. VII), p. 
458; of Thomson (chap. V), pp. 446-450. 

Voltaire and English Drama. 

A most scholarly and significant study of Voltaire's relation 
to English drama and dramatic criticism is Shakespeare and 
Voltaire, by Thomas R. Lounsbury [vol. II in Lounsbury's 
Shakespearean Wars]. New York and London, 1902. 

The present writer's bibliography to chap. IV in vol. X of 
Camb. Hist, includes a special section, ' English Adaptations of 
Voltaire performed on the English Stage, 1734-17 76,' which 
presents a chronological list of English versions of Voltaire's 
dramas and supplies some bibliographical references concerning 
his relation to English drama. 

Lillo. 

* The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell, 
and Fatal Curiosity, by George Lillo, edited by Adolphus 
William Ward (Belles- Lettres Series). Boston, U. S. A., and 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 333 

London, 1906. This admirable edition has a bibliography and 
an introduction which is a notable study of Lillo's work and 
its influence on Continental drama. 

An ' Inaugural Dissertation ' by Leopold Hoffman is George 
Lillo {1693-17 39), Marburg, 1888. 

Moore. 

Quotations from Moore's plays are from the original editions. 
His collected Poems, Fables, and Plays appeared in 1756. An 
' Inaugural-Dissertation ' by Hugo Beyer is Edward Moore. 
Sein Leben und seine dramatischen Werke. Leipzig, 1889. 

CHAPTER XIII 

Fielding. 

*The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq. With an 
Essay on the Life, Genius and Achievement of the Author, by 
William Ernest Henley. Plays and Poems in five volumes 
[vols. VIII-XII]. New York [1902]. 

A convenient reprint of Tom Thumb is in Burlesque Plays 
and Poems. With an introduction by Henry Morley {Morley's 
Universal Library). London and New York, 1885. A more 
critical edition is Fielding's Tom Thumb. Mit Einleitung 
herausgegeben, von Felix Lindner {Englische Textbibliothek, 
IV). Berlin, 1899. 

A considerable study (pp. 186) is Henry Fiel dings dramat- 
ische Werke. Litterarische Studie von Dr. Felix Lindner. Leip- 
zig & Dresden, 1895. 

A useful biography of Fielding, in which much of the first 
two chapters deals with his dramatic work, is Fielding, by Austin 
Dobson {English Men of Letters Series). 1883. A recent work 
(pp. 326) is Henry Fielding, a Memoir, by G. M. Godden. 
191 0. For further bibliographical information see bibliography 
(pp. 413-418) to chap. II in vol. X of Camb. Hist. 

Carey. 

* The Dramatick Works of Henry Carey appeared in a col- 
lected edition in 1743. A convenient reprint of Chrononhoton- 
thologos is in Henry Morley's Burlesque Plays and Poems (see 
above, under Fielding). 



334 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

The Licensing Act. 

A full and scholarly account of the causes leading to the 
Licensing Act is given in The Struggle for a Free Stage in 
London, by Watson Nicholson. Boston and New York [also 
London], 1906. See especially chap. III. A very recent work 
of considerable range is Censorship in England, by Frank 
Fowell and Frank Palmer [1913]. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Garrick. 

Quotations from Garrick's plays are from the original editions 
of the individual plays. The present writer's bibliography to 
chap. IV in vol. X of Camb. Hist, presents separate lists of 
Garrick's plays and dramatic adaptations, and some indication 
of critical and bibliographical material. Among the more 
recent volumes listed is Garrick and His Circle, by Mrs. 
Clement Parsons. New York and London, 1906. This 
valuable study has a list of ' Some Works Consulted,' pp. 
xvii-xx. An excellent work with much new material is A Cos- 
mopolitan Actor, David Garrick and His French Friends, by 
Frank A. Hedgecock [1912]. [' A very free rendering and 
adaptation' of Hedgecock's David Garrick et ses Amis Franqais. 
Paris, 191 1.] The London edition contains (pp. 432-436) ' A 
List of the Principal Works Quoted or Referred to,' and a sec- 
tion of the Appendix (pp. 426-429), ' Garrick and the Plays of 
Shakespeare,' which records the Shakespearean dramas acted 
or produced by Garrick. 

A considerable account of acting during the Garrick period 
is given (pp. 375-412) in vol. V (1909) of A History of Theatrical 
Art, in Ancient and Modern Times, by Karl Mantzius. Au- 
thorised Translation by Louise von Cossel. [Other sections 
in vol. V cover ' The Betterton Period ' (pp. 306-337) and ' The 
Cibber Period ' (pp. 338-374).] For early accounts of Garrick 
and the theatre of his day, see especially the two works by 
Thomas Davies : Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick, Esq. 
2 vols., 1780, and Dramatic Miscellanies, 3 vols., 1784 [vol. II 
dated 1783]. 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 335 

Adaptations of Shakespeare's Plays. 

For broader discussion of the general subject of which the 
history of Garrick's stage-versions of Shakespeare forms but 
one part, see especially chap. VIII, ' Alterations of Shakespeare's 
Plays,' in Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, by Thomas R. 
Lounsbury (vol. I in Lounsbury's Shakespearean Wars). New 
York and London, 1902. A very large part of this entire volume 
is directly concerned with the history of Shakespearean criti- 
cism during the period covered by the present work. A con- 
siderable study (pp. 190) surveying the Restoration period as 
well as the eighteenth century is Alterations and Adaptations 
of Shakespeare, by Frederick W. Kilbourne. Boston [U. S. A.], 
1906. A most extensive reference work (pp. 729) for biblio- 
graphical information as to Restoration and eighteenth-century 
editions and versions of Shakespeare's plays is Shakespeare 
Bibliography, by William Jaggard. Stratford-on-Avon, 191 1. 

For works concerning Voltaire's relation to the English stage 
during the Garrick era, see Notes to Chapter XII, under 
Voltaire and English Drama. For discussion of English ver- 
sions of plays by Pierre and Thomas Corneille and Racine 
during this period, see especially chap. XV in Corneille and 
Racine in England, by Dorothea Frances Canfield, New York 
and London, 1904. 

Quotations from Dr. Johnson's Irene are from the original 
edition of 1749. An admirable bibliography of Johnson by 
David Nichol Smith is in vol. X of Camb. Hist. (pp. 459-480). 
' Dr. Johnson's Irene ' is the subject of a discussion (pp. 103- 
126) in Molloy's Famous Plays, 1886. 

Home. 

Quotations from Home's Douglas are from the original Lon- 
don edition of 1757. The 1760 edition of his Dramatic Works 
contains only Douglas, Agis, and The Siege of Aquileia. His 
Dramatic Works appeared in a two-volume Edinburgh edition 
in 1798. A more recent edition is The Works of John Home 
now first collected [with Henry Mackenzie's ' Account of the 
Life and Writings of John Home']. 3 vols. Edinburgh. 1822. 
The ' Account ' was also printed separately, Edinburgh, 1822. 



336 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

For discussion of the controversy over Douglas, see sect. 
XVII (pp. 313-330) in John Jackson's History of the Scottish 
Stage, Edinburgh, 1793. The Bodleian Library contains a 
valuable collection of the controversial pamphlets. ' Douglas ' 
is the subject of chap. VI (pp. 85-92) in The Annals of the 
Edinburgh Stage, with an account of the Rise and Progress 
of Dramatic Writing in Scotland, by James C. Dibdin. Edin- 
burgh, 1888. 

CHAPTER XV 

Foote. 

Quotations from Foote's plays are from The Dramatic Works 
of Samuel Foote, Esq. 4 vols. [1787-1788?] This collection 
is made up from different editions of the separate plays with 
variously dated individual title-pages and separate pagination. 

A considerable account of Foote is Samuel Foote, a biography, 
by Percy Fitzgerald. 1910. For further bibliographical 
material see bibliography to chap. IV in vol. X of Camb. Hist. 
(pp. 430-431). 

The plays of Arthur Murphy are accessible in The Works of 
Arthur Murphy, Esq. 7 vols. 1786. The plays of George 
Colman the Elder are accessible in The Dramatick Works of 
George Colman. 4 vols. 1777. Quotations in the present 
volume are from the original editions of the separate plays. 
For bibliographical material concerning these and other authors 
discussed in Chapter XV, see the present writer's bibliography 
to chap. IV in vol. X of Camb. Hist. 



CHAPTER XVI 

A definite discussion of English sentimental drama is The 
Development of English Sentimental Comedy in the Eighteenth 
Century, by Osborn Waterhouse, in Anglia, Halle a. S., 
XXX (1907), 137-172, 269-305. The Introductions, in the 
Belles- Lettres Series, to Ward's Lillo (see Notes to Chapter 
XII, under Lillo) and Austin Dobson's Goldsmith (see Notes 
to Chapter XVII) contain brief, but valuable, references to 
sentimental drama in England and France. 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 337 

Goldsmith's important Essay on the Theatre; or, A Com- 
parison between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy, published 
originally in the Westminster Magazine, December, 1772, is 
reprinted in Austin Dobson's edition of Goldsmith's plays in 
the Belles- Lettres Series, pp. 125-130. 

Kelly and Cumberland. 

Quotations from the plays of Hugh Kelly and Richard Cum- 
berland are from the original editions of the separate plays. 
Kelly's plays are accessible in The Works of Hugh Kelly. To 
which is prefixed the Life of the Author. 1778. 

The most remarkable account of Cumberland is his own 
autobiography: Memoirs of Richard Cumberland. Written 
by himself. 1806. Quotations in the present work are from 
the convenient two-volume octavo edition of 1807. A year 
after Cumberland's death, his Memoirs was drawn upon with 
a freedom that Sir Fretful Plagiary might have resented in The 
Life of Richard Cumberland, Esq. By William Mulford. 181 2. 
An earlier account of Cumberland is the chapter (XL VIII) by 
Thomas Davies in his Memoirs of the Life of David Gar rick, Esq. 
(1780 edition, vol. II, pp. 263-278). Many of Cumberland's 
letters which confirm the unconscious self-revelations of the 
Memoirs are in The Private Correspondence of David Garrick 
with the most celebrated persons of his time. 2 vols. 1831-1832. 
See especially, I, 284-285, 380-382, 387, 425-428, 434, 437- 
438, 551-553; II, 126, 200, 206, 282-286. 'Richard Cumber- 
land ' is the subject of an essay (pp. 192-232) in Eighteenth 
Century Studies. By Francis Hitchman. 1881. 



CHAPTER XVn 

Goldsmith. 

*The Good Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer, by 
Oliver Goldsmith. The introduction and biographical and 
critical material by Austin Dobson, the text collated by George 
P. Baker (Belles-Lettres Series). Boston, U. S. A., and Lon- 
don [1903]. This admirable edition contains suggestive notes, 
introduction, and bibliography. 



338 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

A useful recent edition is The Plays of Oliver Goldsmith 
[cover- title]. The Good-Natured Man, She Stoops to Conquer, 
by Oliver Goldsmith, edited with introduction and notes by 
Thomas H. Dickinson {Riverside Literature Series). Boston, 
New York, Chicago [1908]. Convenient recent editions of the 
separate plays include Goldsmith, The Good-Natur'd Man, 
edited with introduction and notes by G. G. Whiskard. Ox- 
ford, 1912, and She Stoops to Conquer, edited with introduc- 
tion and notes by G. A. F. M. Chatwin, Oxford, 1912. 

Among biographies of Goldsmith are The Life and Adventures 
of Oliver Goldsmith. A biography : in four books. By John 
Forster. 1848 ; — Goldsmith, by William Black {English Men 
of Letters Series) . 1878 ; — Life of Oliver Goldsmith. By Austin 
Dobson {Great Writers Series). 1888 [with bibliography by 
John P. Anderson] ; — The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, by Frank 
Frankfort Moore. 19 10. [New York, 191 1.] A very recent ac- 
count of Goldsmith by Austin Dobson is chap. IX in vol. X 
of Camb. Hist., which is supplemented with a bibliography 
(pp. 480-484). 

1 Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer ' is the subject of a dis- 
cussion (pp. 129-174) in Molloy's Famous Plays, 1886. An 
' Inaugural-Dissertation (pp. 116) on Goldsmith als Dramatiker,' 
by Arthur Mendt, was published at Leipzig in 191 1. 

A considerable account of the exordium to Samuel Foote's 
The Handsome Housemaid, or Piety in Pattens is in vol. I, 
pp. 14-22, of The History of the Theatres of London [by 
Walley Chamberlain Oulton, see ' Dedication ']. 2 vols. 1796. 
This useful work, it may here be noted, contains ' An Annual 
Register of all the new and revived Tragedies, Comedies, 
Operas, Farces, Pantomimes, &c. that have been performed at 
the Theatres-Royal, in London, from the year 1771 to 1795.' 
It is a continuation of Benjamin Victor's History of the Theatres 
of London, 1771, which, in turn, is a continuation of Victor's 
previous History, 2 vols., 1761. These three works cover the 
years from 1730 to 1796. For fuller details see bibliography to 
chap. IV in vol. X of Camb. Hist. (pp. 442-443). 



NOTES TO SEPARATE CHAPTERS 339 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Sheridan. 

Quotations from The Rivals and The Critic are from the first 
printed editions of the separate plays. Quotations from The 
School for Scandal are from the text, based on Sheridan's manu- 
script, in * Sheridan's Plays now printed as he wrote them, 
and his mother's unpublished comedy, A Journey to Bath. 
Edited by W. Fraser Rae. 1902. Sheridan's continued in- 
difference toward the question of revising his text for publica- 
tion helps to account for numerous textual variants in editions 
published during his lifetime. Five years after his death, 
appeared The Works of the late Right Honourable Richard 
Brinsley Sheridan [' Advertisement ' signed by Thomas Moore], 
2 vols. London. John Murray, Albemarle-Street; James 
Ridgway; and Thomas Wilkie. 1821. This work, from its 
association with the name of Sheridan's biographer, acquired 
an authority which Moore's own confessions show was unwar- 
ranted. In lieu of the ' Life ' which was to accompany the 
work, Moore finally contributed an apologetic ' Advertisement ' 
which, supported by other definite testimony, shows how 
nominal was his connection with the work on Sheridan which 
was published during his protracted residence on the Continent. 
The so-called ' Moore edition,' however, has been the ultimate 
source of most subsequent reprints of Sheridan's plays. 

An excellent reprint of the first edition of The Rivals is in 
The Rivals, with an introduction and notes by Joseph Quincy 
Adams, Jr. (Riverside Literature Series). Boston, New York, 
Chicago [ioio]. A recent annotated edition of The Rivals is 
Sheridan, The Rivals, edited with introduction and notes by 
T. Balston. Oxford, 1913. An annotated edition of the two 
major comedies is The Rivals and The School for Scandal, 
edited with introduction and notes by Will David Howe (Mac- 
miliars Pocket American and English Classics) . New York and 
London, 1907. ' Sheridan's Rivals and School for Scandal ' is 
the subject of a discussion (pp. 177-218) in Molloy's Famous 
Plays. A convenient annotated edition of Sheridan's collected 
plays is The Dramatic Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 



340 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

with an introduction by Joseph Knight. Oxford, etc. [1906]. 
For references as to editions of Sheridan's plays prior to 1906, 
see ' A Bibliographical Note ' (pp. cxi-cxvii) in the present 
writer's The Major Dramas of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 
The Rivals, The School for Scandal, The Critic, edited with 
introductions and notes (Athenceum Press Series, G. L. 
Kittredge and C. T. Winchester, General Editors). Boston, 
etc. [1906]. This work supplies detailed critical and biblio- 
graphical material which it has seemed unnecessary to reproduce 
here. 

Among numerous accounts of Sheridan's life may be men- 
tioned a few representative works. Memoirs of the Life of the 
Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By Thomas 
Moore. 1825 [Third edition, 2 vols., 1825]. This work handles 
somewhat carelessly its abundant materials, but remains the 
most important of the earlier biographies. 'A Biographical 
Sketch ' by Brander Matthews in his Sheridan's Comedies, 
The Rivals and The School for Scandal. Boston [also London], 
1885. [Reprinted with slight changes, New York, 1904.] 
This is an interesting briefer account. Life of Richard Brinsley 
Sheridan, by Lloyd C. Sanders {Great Writers Series). London, 
etc. [1890]. This contains much useful material, including 
a bibliography by John P. Anderson. Sheridan, a biography, 
by W. Fraser Rae. 2 vols. 1906. This work, by the author 
of the Sheridan article in Diet. Nat. Biog. and the editor of 
Sheridan's Plays now printed as he wrote them, is an extensive 
and important study based largely on the Sheridan manuscripts 
and other authoritative sources of information. Sheridan, 
from new and original material ; including a manuscript diary 
by Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, by Walter Sichel. 
2 vols. 1909. This elaborate work supplements Fraser Rae's 
biography, enlarging the field with some useful new matter, 
but it is marred by frequently ill-founded claims to origi- 
nality and by errors especially numerous in the untrustworthy 
bibliography. 



INDEX 

Individual plays are listed separately under their own titles, with the 
names of their authors in brackets. In the case of Restoration and eighteenth- 
century dramatists, references under individual author-headings are given, 
as a rule, (i) to the chief discussion of their dramatic work, (2) to additional 
comments either on general or specific aspects of their dramatic work, and 
(3) to commentary on their critical views of drama and on various incidental 
topics. Important, or relatively important, references are indicated by 
heavy-faced page numerals; references to footnotes in the main text, by 
'n. '; to the ' Bibliographical Notes' (pp. 315-340), by 'BIBL.,' followed 
by the page numeral. With a few exceptions, authors and titles cited only 
in the ' Bibliographical Notes' are not separately listed in this Index, but 
various critical editions, theses, and other works may be located through 
the general bibliographical references given under the individual dramatists 
or topics concerned. 



Abdelazar (Mrs. Behn), 114. 

Actaeon and Diana (Cox), 107. 

Actors, 

creation of two companies of, under 
Charles II, 2 ; account of, during 
dramatic interregnum, 14-16; after 
the Restoration, 30-31. 

Actors Remonstrance, The (pr. 1643), 
15-16; BIBL., 321. 

Actresses, 

sporadic appearances of, before 
the Restoration, 3 ; regularly em- 
ployed on Restoration stage, 3 ; 
plays acted wholly by, 34, 42; 
coarse epilogues spoken by, 42. 

Addington, William, 

Kelly's School for Wives produced 
under his name, 272. 

Addison, Joseph, 

dramatic work and criticisms, 179- 
182, 184; other references to 
Cato, 163, 189, 198, 216; to 
Rosamond, 172, 172 n. ; protests 
against perversion of Lear, 115; 
indebtedness of Steele's Lying 
Lover to, 162, 162 n. ; remarks 
on opera, 171, 171 n. ; prologue 
and epilogue by, 179; attacks 
gambling, 210; BIBL:, 330-331 • 



Adventures of Five Hours, The (Tuke), 

6, 45, 109. 
Msop (Vanbrugh), 133. 
Afterpieces, dramatic, 

development and influence of, 247- 

249. 
Agamemnon (Thomson), 197. 
Agis (Home), 240. 
Aitken, G. A., 

his edition of Steele cited, 163 n. ; 

BIBL., 330. 
Albion and Albanius, 

opera by Dry den, 94; its Preface 

cited, 171. 
Albion Queens, The (original title, The 

Island Queens, John Banks), 117. 
Alchemist, The (Jonson), 
. revivals of, 38, 183; Garrick as 

Abel Drugger in, 245. 
Alcibiades (Otway), 99. 
Alexander the Great, The Death of 

(main title, The Rival Queens, Lee), 

96-97, 97 n., 117 n. 
Alfred (Home), 240-241. 
All for Love (Dryden), 90-92, 53, 

68, 88, 95, 96, 101. 
All in the Wrong (Murphy), 255. 
Almanzor and Almahide, or The Con- 
quest of Granada by the Spaniards 



341 



342 



MDEX 



Almanzor and Almahide — Cont. 

(Dryden), 62-63, 60; 

its Epilogue, 63-64; Almanzor 

burlesqued in The Rehearsal, 

64^65- 
Almida, 

Madame Celesia's adaptation of 

Voltaire's Tancrede, 236. 
Alonzo (Home), 240. 
Ahira, 

Hill's adaptation of Voltaire's 

Alzire, 200. 
Alzuma (Murphy), 237. 
Ambitious Step-Mother, The (Rowe), 

173; 

its Epilogue cited, 169; its Pro- 
logue cited, 177. 
Amboyna (Dryden), 67. 
Amorous Prince, The (Mrs. Behn), 

114. 
Amphitryon (Dryden), 93. 
Andromache, 

Crowne's adaptation of Racine, 

112. 
Andronicus Comnenius (Wilson), 39. 
Antony and Cleopatra (Sedley), in. 
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare), 

contrasted with All for Love, 90-92. 
Appius (Moncrief), 240. 
Arber, Edward, 

his reprint of The Rehearsal cited, 

55 n., 65 n.; BIBL., 324. 
Arbuthnot, John, 

collaborates with Gay and Pope, 

190. 
Arden of Fever sham (Lillo), 208. 
Arsino'e, 

opera by Motteux, 171. 
Artifice, The (Mrs. Centlivre), 154. 
Artificial. Comedy of the Last Century, 

On the, Lamb's essay, 7-10; BIBL., 

320. 
Assignation, The (Dryden), 67. 
As You Like It, 

revival of, 232 ; a note on Touch- 
stone, 78 n. 
Atheist, The (Otway), 100 n. 
Athelwold (Hill), 200 n. 
Aureng-Zebe (Dryden), 68; 

its Prologue cited, 68, 90. 
Author, The (Foote), 253. 



Author's Farce, The (Fielding), 214, 
219. 

Ayscough, George Edward, 
his Semiramis adapted from Vol- 
taire's Semiramis, 236. 

Baillie, Joanna, 

Elizabethan tendencies in, 176. 

Baker, H. B., 

his History of the London Stage, 
BIBL., 318. 

Baker, Thomas, 

Prologue to his Tunbridge-W ells 
cited, 116. 

Banishment of Cicero, The (pr. 1761, 
Cumberland), 272. 

Banks, John, 

dramatic work, 117-118, 106 n. ; 
debt to French romances, 109; 
continued popularity of his plays, 
173, 240; satirized in Tom Thumb, 
216; Jones's use of his Unhappy 
Favourite, 239-240. 

Barbarossa (Brown), 239-240. 

Baron, Robert, 

plays of, published during inter- 
regnum, 19. 

Barry, Elizabeth, 
Restoration actress, 101, 173. 

Barry, Spranger, 

actor, 234, 240, 245, 256 (with his 
wife). 

Bartholomew Fair (Jonson), 
revival of, 183. 

Battle of Hastings, The (Cumber- 
land), 274. 

Beaumont and Fletcher, 
{see also Fletcher, John) 
'drolls' based on, 18; interregnum 
performances of, 18-19; D'Ave- 
nant's early plays resembling, 20 ; as 
forerunners of 'heroic drama,' 22, 
32; Restoration performances of, 
35-36, 48, 58; eighteenth-century 
performances of, 173, 183 ; Field- 
ing's allusion to, 221 ; popularity of, 
compared with Shakespeare's, 232 ; 
Colman's alteration of Philaster, 
260; Colman's edition of their 
dramatic works, 262 ; BIBL., 323 
{under J. W. Tupper). 



INDEX 



343 



Beau's Duel, The (Mrs. Centlivre), 

154- 

Beauty in Distress (Motteux), 166-167. 

Beaux' Stratagem, The (Farquhar), 
137-140 ; 

compared with She Stoops to Con- 
quer, 286, 286 n. 

Beggar's Opera, The (Gay), 189-194, 
140,204, 213, 214; 
Rich's revival of, 246 ; its run com- 
pared with that of Sheridan's Du- 
enna, 299-300; BIBL., 331-332. 

Behn, Mrs. Aphra, 
dramatic work, 1 14-1 15; her Em- 
peror of the Moon, 1 84 ; Continental 
influences on, 46, 109 ; Southerne's 
plays founded on her novels, 118; 
BIBL., 327. 

Bellamira (Thomas Killigrew), 108. 

Bellamira, or The Mistress (Sedley), 
in. 

Bellamy, George Anne, 
actress, 234. 

Belphegor (Wilson), 39. 

Betterton, Thomas, 
as actor, 36, 173, 233 ; as manager, 
125, 169 ; collects Shakespeare ma- 
terial, 177. 

Betty, William Henry West, 
the 'Young Roscius,' 240. 

Bickerstaff, Isaac, 

dramatic work, 257 ; spelling of his 
name, 257 n. ; indebtedness of his 
Hypocrite to Cibber's Non-Juror, 
152. 

Biographia Dramatica, 

cited, 39, 186; BIBL., 316-317. 

Biter, The (Rowe), 176. 

Blackmore, Sir Richard, 

protests against the excesses of 
Restoration drama, 120, 142; 
praises Congreve's Mourning Bride, 
120 n. 

Black Prince, The (Orrery), 59. 

Bold Stroke for a Wife, A (Mrs. Cent- 
livre), 154, 195- 

Bon Ton (Garrick), 254. 

Boswell, James, 
his Life of Johnson cited, 127 n., 
151, 151 n., 241 n., 250 n., 251 n., 
284 n. 



Bottom the Weaver, 

a ' droll ' founded on A Midsummer 
Night's Dream, 16. 

Bouncing Knight, The, 
a 'droll' concerning Falstaff, 18. 

Boursault, E., 

Vanbrugh's debt to, 133. 

Boyle, Roger (Earl of Orrery), 
dramatic work, 54-55, 55 n. ; his 
Guzman, 45, 45 n. ; his Black 
Prince, 59; his debt to French 
romances, 109; BIBL., 323. 

Bracegirdle, Anne, 
actress, 173. 

Britannia and Balavia (Lillo), 208. 

Brome, Richard, 
as a forerunner of Restoration 
comedy, 72 ; Mrs. Behn's debt to, 
114. 

Brothers, The (Cumberland), 272. 

Brothers, The (Young), 195-196. 

Brown, John, 
his Barbarossa, 239-240. / 

Brutus, 

Duncombe's adaptation of Vol- 
taire's tragedy, 200. 

Buckingham, Duke of (George 
Villiers), 

The Rehearsal, 64-66, 55, 55 n., 86, 
89, 213, 214, 229, 229 n. ; its in- 
fluence on Sheridan, 292, 308, 311 ; 
BIBL., 324. 

Bury Fair (Shadwell), 84, 86. 

Busie-Body, The (Mrs. Centlivre), 154. 

Busiris (Young), 195 ; 

burlesqued by Fielding, 196, 216. 

Butler, Samuel, 
his possible share in The Rehearsal, 
64. 

Caelia (Charles Johnson), 209-210. 

Caesar Borgia (Lee), 98. 

Caius Marius, The History and Fall 
of (Otway), 100, 233. 

Calderon, 
his influence on Restoration dram- 
atists, 45, 79, 109. 

Caligula (Crowne), 112, 167. 

Calisto (Crowne), 107, 108. 

Calypso and Telemachus (Hughes), 
196. 



344 



INDEX 



Cambert, Robert, 
French opera of, 44. 

Cambridge History of English Litera- 
ture, The, BIBL., 315, 317, 319, 
323, 326, 327, 329, 330, 331, 332, 
333, 334, 335, 336, 338. 

Cambyses (Settle), 113. 

Capuchin, The (Foote), 251. 

Caractacus (Mason), 243. 

Careless Husband, The (Cibber), 150- 
152, 161 ; 
Garrick acts in, 229. 

Carey, Henry, 

dramatic work, 216-217, 194, 265 ; 
BIBL., 333- 

Cato (Addison), 179-182, 183; 

Fielding's reference to, 163 ; Vol- 
taire's opinion of , 182, 198; Cibber's 
comment on, 189 ; satirized in Tom 
Thumb, 216; BIBL., 330. 

Cavalier spirit, 
its expression in printed interreg- 
num plays, 19-20 ; in early printed 
Restoration plays, 37; in early 
acted Restoration plays, 36-37; 
in Etherege's Comical Revenge, 74. 
v Celesia, Dorothea (Madame), 

her Almida, adapted from Vol- 
taire's Tancrede, 236. 1 

Censorship, dramatic, 

Sir Henry Herbert's position on, 
31; increased strictness of, 147; 
Gay's Polly and other plays pro- 
hibited, 193, 222, 222 n. ; the 
Licensing Act of 1737, 221-222, 
224; Thomson's Edward and Eleo- 
nora rejected by censor, 197 ; 
BIBL., 334 (under The Licensing 
Act). 

Centlivre, Mrs., 

dramatic work, 153-154; Spanish 
influence on, 46; BIBL., 329-330. 

Chamberlayne, William, 

his play {Love's Victory) published 
during interregnum, 19. 

Chapman, George, 
Tate's adaptation of, 115. 

Charles II, 
Patent Theatres established under, 
1-2, 30-31 ; his regard for Thomas 
Killigrew, 34; his relation to 



French drama, 47, 59, 59 n. ; his 
preference for comedy, 72, 72 n. 

Cheats, The (Wilson), 38. 

Cheats of Scapin, The (Otway), 100. 

Chinese Festival, The, 

produced by Garrick, 246. 

Christian Hero, The (Lillo), 207- 
208. 

Chrononhotonthologos (Carey), 216- 
217, 194; BIBL., 333. 

Cibber, Colley, 
dramatic work, 149-153, 147, 154, 
204; other references to his 
Love's Last Shift, 133-^134; to 
his Careless Husband, 161 ; to his 
Non-Juror, 257 ; to his Provoked 
Husband, 133, 195, 303; his 
Heroic Daughter, 183 ; his altera- 
tion of King John in Papal 
Tyranny, 231-232, 231 n. ; his 
Prologue to Hill's Zara quoted, 
200; Spanish influence on his 
plays, 46 ; Garrick acts in his plays, 
229; his influence on Steele's plays, 
161, 162, 163. — As historian of 
drama in his Apology; comments 
on Lee's Rival Queens, 96-97 ; on 
'dramatic operas,' 117, 170; on 
opening of Haymarket Theatre, 
132; on Vanbrugh's style, 136; on 
spectacular stage diversions, 168, 
169-170; on Italian opera, 171,172; 
on pantomimes, 184-186, 247 ; on 
Gay's Beggar's Opera, 189; on 
Fielding's political satires, 221-222 ; 
BIBL., 329. 

Cibber, Mrs., 
actress, 234, 245. 

Cibber, Theophilus, 
his Lives of the Poets cited, 206 n. ; 
attacks Garrick's Shakespearean 
versions, 234, 234 n. 

Cinna's Conspiracy (often, doubt- 
fully, ascribed to Colley Cibber), 
183. 

Circe (Dr. Charles D'Avenant), 117, 
170. 

City Heiress, The (Mrs. Behn), 114. 

City Politiques (Crowne), 112. 

Clandestine Marriage, The (Colman 
and Garrick), 261-263, 245. 



INDEX 



345 



Claracitta (Thomas Killigrew), 
revival of, 34. 

Clayton, William, 

composer of music to Arsinoe, 171 ; 
to Addison's opera, 172. 

Clementina (Kelly), 272. 

Cleomenes (Dryden), 93, 94. 

Clifford, Martin, 

assists in The Rehearsal, 64. 

Clinch, Lawrence, 

his success as Sir Lucius OTrigger, 
294, 299. 

Cockpit Theatre, in Drury Lane, 
early performances at, 30-31. 

Coello, Antonio, 

Spanish dramatist, 45. 

Coffee-House Politician, The (alterna- 
tive title iorRape upon Rape, Field- 
ing), 214 n., 255. 

Cokayne, Sir Aston, 

plays of, published during inter- 
regnum, 19. 

Collier, Jeremy, 
his Short View of the Immorality, 
and Profaneness of the English 
Stage, 121, 142-144, 148; his De- 
fence of the Short View, 123, 123 n., 
145; pamphlet controversy pro- 
voked by, 144-145, 147 ; attitude 
of Dryden towards, 95, 95 n., 145- 
146; of Congreve, 123, 129, 144- 
145 ; of Vanbrugh, 144-145 ; of 
Steele, 158; other references to, 
153, 166, 196, 301; BIBL., 329. 

Collier, John Payne, 

his History of English Dramatic 
Poetry cited, 18 n. 

Collier controversy, the, 

over the immorality of the stage, 
121, 141-148, 95, 123, 129, 153, 158, 
166, 196; BIBL., 329. 

Collins, William, 
his connection with John Home, 
242. 

Colman, George, the elder, 

dramatic work, 257-263 ; his Eng- 
lish Merchant, 237 ; his alteration 
of Mason's Elfrida, 243 ; his general 
theatrical and literary career, 262- 
263 ; his productions of Goldsmith's 
plays, 262, 277, 283 ; BIBL., 336. 



Comedy of manners, 
Restoration, contrasted with 
Spanish comedy, 46-47 ; with 
Elizabethan, 72-73 ; Etherege as 
founder of 'society comedy,' 73, 
76-77 ; Congreve as follower of, 
76, 87, 132 ; Shadwell in relation 
to, 84 ; Sheridan in relation to, 87, 
306, 313. 

Comic Dramatists of the Restoration, 
Macaulay's essay on, 8-10; BIBL., 
320. 

Comical Gallant, The, or The Amours 
of Sir John Falstafe (Dennis), 230, 
230 n. 

Comical Revenge, The (Etherege), 73- 

74, 55, Hi- 
Co mmittee, The (Sir Robert Howard), 
in, in n. 

Confederacy, The (Vanbrugh), 135, 
132, 133- 

Congreve, William, 

dramatic work, 122-132 ; gen- 
eral references to, 37, 47, 53, 
71, 106, 135, 136, 141, 148, 
166; as a follower of 'society 
comedy,' 76, 87; his Millamant 
compared with Dryden's Melantha, 
67 ; with Cibber's Lady Betty 
Modish, 150; his Belinda with 
Cibber's Lady Grave- Airs, 150; 
his tribute to Wycherley's Plain 
Dealer, 82-83 ; his Mourning Bride 
praised by Blackmore, 120 n. ; his 
part in the Collier controversy, 
144-146; as theatrical manager, 
172 ; Queen Anne performances of 
his plays, 173; Garrick's per- 
formances of, 229; his influence 
on Fielding, 213, 224; on Colman, 
259, 259 n. ; on Sheridan, 291, 306 ; 
BIBL., 327-329. 

Conquest of Granada by the Span- 
iards, The (main title, Almanzor 
and Almahide, Dryden), 62-63, 60; 
its Epilogue, 63-64; Almanzor 
burlesqued in The Rehearsal, 64-65. 

Conscious Lovers, The (Steele), 163- 
164, 195, 210, 248. 

Constant Couple, The (Farquhar), 137; 
its Prologue cited, 168. 



346 



INDEX 



Constant Nymph, The (Anon.), 108. 

Constantine the Great (Lee), 98. 

Cooke, William, 
his comments on Gay's Beggar's 
Opera, 191, 193 n. 

Coriolanus, 
Tate's adaptation of, 115; James 
Thomson's version of, 197 ; Den- 
nis's version of, 230, 230 n. 

Corneille, Pierre, 

influence of his dramas and dra- 
matic theories on Restoration 
drama, A9~$o, 35, 47, 57, no; his 
part in Psyche, 44 ; Dryden's refer- 
ence to ' Corneille's rhyme,' 63, 84 ; 
Steele's borrowing from, 161 ; 
Queen Anne adaptations of, 183; 
general influence of, 198; satirized 
by Fielding, 216; later adaptations 
of, 235, 239; BIBL., 331, 335. 

Corneille, Thomas, 

his influence on Dryden's Evening's 
Love, 56—57 ; English versions of his 
plays, 235, 239; BIBL., 331, 335- 

Costume, 
D'Avenant's early attempts at his- 
torical accuracy in, 28-29 ; increas- 
ing attention to, 40-42 ; expen- 
sive 'habits' in operas, 117, 170; 
in pantomimes, 187. 

Cotton, Charles, 
minor Restoration dramatist, no. 

Country Girl, The (Garrick), 80, 300. 

Country House, The (Vanbrugh), 133. 

Country Wife, The (Wycherley), 79- 
80, 77, 81; 

Macaulay on its immorality, 8-9; 
an alleged source of Sheridan's 
Duenna, 300 ; compared with The 
School for Scandal, 306. 

Country Wit, The (Crowne), 112. 

Covent Garden Theatre, 
Marforio produced at, 220; Gar- 
rick's connection with, 228; John 
Rich's Shakespearean revivals at, 
231 ; rivalry with Drury Lane, 
234; revival of Murphy's Orphan 
of China at, 237 ; Douglas at, 240, 
240 n. ; Mason's plays produced 
at, 243 ; secession of actors to, 245 ; 
Colman as manager of, 262 ; Gold- 



smith's plays produced at, 262, 
268, 277, 283 ; Sheridan's plays 
produced at, 293, 299. 

Covent-Garden Tragedy, The (Field- 
ing), 216. 

Cowley, Abraham, 
dramatic work, 37; BIBL., 322. 

Cox, Robert, 
actor and author of 'drolls,' 16, 18; 
his pastoral, 107. 

Cozeners, The (Foote), 253, 254. 

Cradock, Joseph, 
his Zobeide adapted from Voltaire's 
Les Scythes, 236. 

Craftie Cromwell (pr. 1648, Anon.), 
19-20. 

Crisp, Samuel (often, erroneously, 
'Henry'), his Virginia, 239, 240. 

Critic, The (Sheridan), 308-312, 313; 
in connection with The Rehearsal, 
66; with Tom Thumb, 216; its 
debt to Fielding's farces, 219, 
219 n. ; its parody of Douglas, 242, 
242 n. ; its hit at Kelly's senti- 
mental drama, 270; its portrayal 
of Cumberland as Sir Fretful 
Plagiary, 272; its relation to 
Sheridan and Halhed's Jupiter, 
292 ; its personal hit, 302 ; BIBL., 
330-340. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 

acting 'in Oliver's time,' 15; in- 
terregnum plays attacking him, 
19-20; Sir Henry Herbert's men- 
tion of, 31 ; early Restoration 
plays attacking him, 36-37; allu- 
sions to, by Etherege, 74. 

Cromwell's Conspiracy (pr. 1660), 37. 

Cross, W. L., 

cited as authority, 220 n. 

Crowne, John, 

dramatic work, 112-113 ; Con- 
tinental influences on, 46, 46 n., 
109, no; royal command to write 
comedy, 72 n. ; his use of blank 
verse and rhyme, 105, 167; his 
masque Calisto, 107, 108; his Sir 
Courtly Nice as a typical fop, 150 ; 
BIBL., 327. 

Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, The 
(D'Avenant), 27-28. 



INDEX 



347 



Cumberland, Sir Richard, 
dramatic work, 272-276, 156, 268, 
277, 282 ; as Sheridan's Sir Fretful 
Plagiary, 310 ; BIBL., 337. 

Cutter of Coleman-Street (Cowley), 

37. 

Cymbeline, 

Colman's revival of, 262. 
Cyrus (Hoole), 237. 
Cyrus the Great (Banks), 118. 

Dance, James, 

his dramatization of Pamela, 229. 

Dancer, John, 

his translation of Tasso's Aminta, 
107-108, 108 n. ; of French drama, 
no. 

Dancourt, 
Vanbrugh's debts to, 133, 135. 

D'Avenant, Dr. Charles, 
his Circe (1677), 117, 170. 

D'Avenant, Sir William, 

dramatic work, 20-33, 4*> 43~44> 
48, ss, 105; his alteration of 
Macbeth, 5-6, 41 ; of The Tempest 
(with Dryden), 5, 56, 56 n. ; 
his plays published during in- 
terregnum, 19; attacked in The 
Rehearsal, 64, 64 n. ; as laureate, 
86 ; Cibber's account of his intro- 
duction of dramatic operas, 117; 
BIBL., 321-322. 

Davies, Thomas, 

his Life ofGarrick cited, 187, 187 n., 
188-189, 212 n., 228 n. ; his 
Dramatic Miscellanies cited, 233, 
233 n.; BIBL., 334. 

Debauchees, The (Fielding), 218. 

Deborah (Fielding), 218. 

Defence of an Essay of Dramatic 
Poesy, A, by Dryden, 60, 93, 93 n. 

Dennis, John, 
his tragedies, 167 ; Congreve's 
letter to, 129, 129 n. ; in Collier 
controversy, 144-145 ; praises 
Congreve, 148; attacks Steele's 
Conscious Lovers, 163; his essay 
on operas, 171. 

Destouches, 
a forerunner of sentimental drama, 
264. 



Destruction of Jerusalem, The 

(Crowne), 112. 
Deuce is in Him, The (Colman), 260. 
Devil upon Two Sticks, The (Foote), 

253- 
Dictionary of National Biography, 

BIBL., 318. 
Diderot, Denis, 

Lillo's influence on, 207, 207 n., 264. 
Dido and Aeneas, 

Purcell's opera, 44. 
Digby, George (Earl of Bristol), 

his adaptations of Calderon, 45, 

109. 
Discovery, The (Mrs. Sheridan), 260, 

292. 
Distrest Mother, The (Philips), 179, 

183, 235, 239; 

satirized by Fielding, 216. 
Diversions of the Morning, The, 

Foote's entertainment, 249. 
Dobson, Austin, 

his Fielding cited, 223 n. ; BIBL., 

333 ; his edition of Goldsmith's 

plays cited, 265 n., 266 n., 285, 

285 n.; BIBL., 3 37- 
Dr. Faustus (Marlowe), 

comic scenes in, compared with 

Otway's, 102. 
Dodsley, Robert, 

his collection of old plays, 238. 
Don Carlos (Otway), 99-100, 103. 
Don Quixote in England (Fielding), 

218. 
Doran, John, 

his Annals of the English Stage 

cited, 195 n.; BIBL., 318. 
Dorset Gardens Theatre, 

its opening, 117; its elaborate 

spectacles, 168. 
Double-Dealer, The (Congreve), 123- 

125. 
Douglas (Home), 240-243 ; 

parodied in Sheridan's Critic, 309, 

309 n. ; BIBL., 335~336. 
Downes, John, 

his Roscius Anglicanus cited, 5-6, 

6 n., 35-36, 35 n., 38, 39, 41, 41 n., 

45, 45 n., 169, 169 n. ; BIBL., 319 ; 

Knight's reprint of, cited, 1 n.; 

BIBL., 319. 



348 



INDEX 



Dragon of Wantley, The (Carey), 217. 

Drama, 

(see especially Elizabethan drama, 
French drama, Restoration drama, 
etc.) ' modern English drama,' 
definition of, suggested, 1, 2; im- 
portance of, 12-13 ; formal open- 
ing of, 30-31- 

Draper, Matthew, 
his Spendthrift, 210. 

'Drolls,' 

during dramatic interregnum, 16- 
19, 43; BIBL., 321. 

Drummer, The (Addison), 180. 

Drury Lane Theatre, 
earlier known as The Theatre 
Royal, 31, 35; Vanbrugh's Re- 
lapse produced at, 134 ; Colley 
Cibber as manager of, 149 ; Chris- 
topher Rich as manager of, 169- 
170, 172; annual performance 
of Rbwe's Tamerlane at, 173 ; 
pantomimes at, 184-186, 188; 
Lillo's George Barnwell at, 207 ; 
Fielding's plays at, 213, 218; 
secession of actors from, 219; bur- 
lesque of a production at, 220; 
failure of Fielding's Eurydice at, 
221; Garrick's Lethe at, 228; 
actors' dissensions at, 228; Gar- 
rick and Lacy as managers of, 2 29 ; 
stock plays at, 230 ; Shakespearean 
productions at, 231 n., 232-234; 
revivals of Merope at, 237 ; Garrick 
at, 246; refunding of 'advanced 
money' at, 247, 247 n. ; Garrick's 
term as manager of, 250; Kelly's 
False Delicacy produced at, 268; 
Sheridan as manager of, 301, 312; 
Sheridan's plays produced at, 301- 
302, 308. 

Dryden, John, 

dramatic work and critical theories, 
53-68, 88-95 ; his alteration (with 
D'Avenant) of The Tempest, 
5, 32; his collaboration with Sir 
Robert Howard, no ; as critic, 3, 4, 
35, 50, 51-52; his attitude toward 
Shakespeare, 5, 5 n., 35, 177; on 
the origin of 'heroic plays,' 23—24; 
his dramas as stock plays, 35, 173 ; 



Spanish influence on, 45, 109; 
his tribute to Wycherley's Plain 
Dealer, 82 ; his satire of Shadwell, 
84, 86; his attitude toward 
Jonson and Corneille, 84; as 
laureate, 86 ; his controversy with 
Howard, 105, in; his references 
to Dorset Gardens spectacles, 
117, 117 n., 168, 169; to South- 
erne, 118, 118 n. ; his praises of 
Congreve, 122, 130; his attitude 
in Collier controversy, 121, 145- 
146, 145 n., 146 n. ; his definition 
of opera, 171 ; other references to 
Dryden, 43, 71, 73 n., 77, 85, 86, 
104, 113, 115, 148, 166, 170, 173, 
179, 182, 216; BIBL., 323-324. 

Duenna, The (Sheridan), 299-301, 
194. 

Duke of Guise, The (Dryden and Lee), 
93- 

Duke of Lerma, The (main title, The 
Great Favourite, Sir Robert 
Howard), in; 
its Preface cited, 60. 

Duncombe, William, 

adapts Voltaire's Brutus, 200; 
his verses on Hughes's Siege of 
Damascus, 196-197. 

D'Urfey, Thomas, 

Restoration dramatist, 116. 

Dutch Lover, The (Mrs. Behn), 109. 

Earl of Essex, The (Jones), 239-240. 

Edgar (Rymer), 89, 89 n. 

Edward and Eleonora (Thomson), 
197. 

Elf rid (Hill), 200 n. 

Elfrida (Mason), 243. 

Elizabethan drama, 

its height and decline, 1-2 ; its 
methods of stage presentation, 
3; its general contrasts with 
Restoration drama, 3-12 ; its in- 
fluence on 'drolls,' 18-19; 
D'Avenant as follower of, 20-21, 
29, 32-33; T. Killigrew as fol- 
lower of, 33 ; its anticipation of 
' heroic drama, ' 22-23 ; its vital 
connection with Restoration 
drama, 35, 43, 48; Restoration 



INDEX 



349 



Elizabethan drama — Cont. 
revivals of, 35-36, 48; Spanish 
influence on, 45 ; use of rhymed 
couplet in, 54; Dryden's attitude 
toward, 63-64, 68, 95 ; connection 
of its comedy with Restoration 
comedy, 72, 83-84, 86; Rymer's 
attacks on, 88-90; influence of, 
after All for Love, 95; on Otway, 
101, 102 ; Queen Anne perform- 
ances of, 172-173, 183; its do- 
mestic tragedies in relation to 
Lillo, 202; Dodsley's Old Plays 
published, 238. 

Elmerick (Lillo), 208. 

Elvira (George Digby, Earl of Bris- 
tol), 45- 

Elvira (Mallet), 260. 

Emperor of the Moon (Mrs. Behn), 
114, 184. 

Empress of Morocco, The (Settle), 
113, 113 n. 

English Merchant, The (Colman), 237. 

Englishman in Paris, The (Foote), 
251. 

Englishman Returned from Paris, The 
(Foote), 251. 

Epilogues, 

Restoration tragedies capped with 
coarse, 42, 166; Young's coarse, 
196. 

Epsom Wells (Shadwell), 84-85. 

Essay of Dramatic Poesy, An, by Dry- 
den, 60, 60 n., 63 n. 

Essay on Comedy, An, by George 
Meredith, cited, 131 n. ; BIBL., 
328. 

Essay on the Theatre, An, 

Goldsmith's views on sentimental 
comedy in, 266-267, 283 ; Dob- 
son's reprint of, 266 n. ; BIBL., 
337- 

Etherege, Sir George, 

dramatic work, 73-77; his early 
use of rhyme, 55, 71, in; his 
'seven years' silence,' 78, 78 n. ; 
Wycherley's possible debt to, 
78; his fop, Sir Fopling Flutter, 
112, 134, 150; other references 
to his comedies, 46, 86, 104, 105, 
123, 132, 135; BIBL., 324. 



Euripides, 

Dennis's borrowing from, 167. 
Eurydice (Fielding), 221. 
Eurydice Hissed (Fielding), 221, 223. 
Evelyn, John, 

his Diary cited, in n., 141. 
Evening's Love, An (Dryden), 56-57, 

45- 

Fair Penitent, The (Rowe), 173-176; 
Garrick as Lothario in, 229; BIBL., 
330. 

Fall of Phaeton, The, 

burlesqued by Fielding, 220. 

False Concord (Townley), 254; 
as a source of The Clandestine Mar- 
riage, 261. 

False Delicacy (Kelly), 268-271, 277, 
282, 310. 

False Friend, The (Vanbrugh), 133. 

Fanshawe, Sir Richard, 

his translations of Spanish drama, 
46 ; his work parodied in The Re- 
hearsal, 65. 

Farquhar, George, 

dramatic work, 136-140, 122, 141, 
173, 209, 247 n. ; his attitude 
toward Collier, 148; Garrick acts 
in his Recruiting Officer, 228, 229; 
compared with Goldsmith, 286, 
286 n.; BIBL., 328-329. 

Fashionable Lover, The (Cumberland), 
274. 

Fatal Curiosity (Lillo), 208; 

Fielding's Prologue to, 217; Field- 
ing's productions of, 220; BIBL., 
332-333- 

Fatal Discovery, The (Home), 240. 

Fatal Discovery, The, or Love in Ruins 
(Anon.), 166. 

Fatal Extravagance, The (Hill), 200 n. 

Fatal Marriage, The (Southerne), 
118, 174. 

Fatal Vision, The (Hill), 200 n. 

Fate of Capua, The (Southerne), 118. 

Fathers, The, or The Good-Natured 
Man (Fielding), 223. 

Fenton, Elijah, 
his Mariamne, 216. 

Fenton, Lavinia, 

as Polly Peachum, 190. 



35o 



INDEX 



Field, Nathaniel, 
his Fatal Dowry (with Massinger), 

174, 175. 

Fielding, Henry, 

dramatic work, 213-224; other 
references to his Tom Thumb, 
194, 196, 197, 256; his Squire 
Western and Steele, 162 ; his 
own reference to Cato and The 
Conscious Lovers, 163; Gay as a 
forerunner of , 192, 194; his appre- 
ciation of Lillo, 203, 206; an Epi- 
logue by, 210; his relation to the 
Licensing Act, 221-222 ; turns 
from drama to novel, 225-226; 
satirizes Cibber's Shakespearean 
alterations, 231-232 ; his relation 
to dramatic afterpieces, 248; 
Foote as a follower of, 250; 
Murphy's debt to his farces, 255, 
256; Colman's dramatization of 
Tom Jones, 258-260; his hits at 
sentimental drama, 265 ; Sheridan's 
Critic indebted to, 311; BIBL., 
333- 

Filmer, Edward, 

in Collier controversy, 144. 

First Days Entertainment at Rutland- 
House (D'Avenant), 22. 

Fitzpatrick, Richard, 
his Prologue to Sheridan's Critic, 
308, 308 n. 

Flecknoe, Richard, 
his Love's Dominion, 107; his 
Short Discourse of the English Stage, 
40; BIBL., 322. 

Fletcher, John, 

(see also Beaumont and Fletcher) 
D'Avenant's adaptation of The 
Two Noble Kinsmen, 32; his pos- 
sible influence on T. Killigrew, 
33 ; Lamb's reference to, 37 ; his 
debt to Cervantes, 45 ; Dryden's 
references to, 60, 93; Rymer's 
attack on, 89 ; his Bonduca, 93 ; 
his relation to Crowne's Married 
Beau, 112; Tate's adaptation of, 
115; Vanbrugh's adaptation of, 
133; Farquhar's debt to, 137; 
Collier's tolerance towards, 142; 
Cibber's debt to, 150; revival 



of his Humorous Lieutenant, 183; 
BIBL., 323 (under J. W. Tupper). 

Florizel and Perdita (Garrick), 233. 

Foote, Samuel, 

dramatic work, 249-254 ; as a fol- 
lower of Fielding, 224; attacks 
Voltaire, 236, 236 n. ; satirized in 
The S pouter, 255; transfers Hay- 
market Theatre, 262 ; presents 
She Stoops to Conquer, 283 ; his 
burlesque of sentimental drama, 
283-284; Sheridan's debt to, in The 
Critic, 311; BIBL., 336. 

Footman, The, 

an anonymous opera, 217 n. 

Forc'd Marriage, The (Mrs. Behn), 
114. 

Forster, John, 

his Life of Goldsmith cited, 285 n. ; 
BIBL., 338. 

Foundling, The (Moore), 210. 

French drama, 

general influence of, on Restora- 
tion drama, 47-51 ; on ' heroic 
drama,' 57-59 ; on minor Restora- 
tion drama, no ; on Queen Anne 
drama, 179, 183-184; on subse- 
quent eighteenth-century drama, 
235-237- 

French heroic romances, 

influence of, on English 'heroic 
drama,' 57-58, 62, 109. 

Friendship in Fashion (Otway), 100. 

Funeral, The (Steele), 156-158, 151; 
its Prologue cited, 168-169. 

Gamester, The (Moore), 210-212, 239, 
243. 

Gamesters, The, 

Garrick' s alteration of Shirley, 238. 

Garrick, David, 
as actor and playwright, 227-234 ; 
his Country Girl, 80, 300; his 
Isabella, 118; his Gamesters, 238; 
his farces, 254; his Clandestine 
Marriage (with Colman), 261- 
262; his relation to Moore's 
plays, 212; his attitude towards 
Home's plays, 240, 242-243; his 
concessions to popular taste, 246, 
248 ; Foote's attitude towards, 249, 



INDEX 



351 



Garrick, David — Cont. 

250; his connection with Kelly's 
False Delicacy, 268, 277 ; inciden- 
tal references to his acting, 178, 
201, 222, 236, 245, 260; BIBL., 

334-335- 

Gay, John, 

dramatic work, 189-194; other 
references to The Beggar's Opera, 
140, 204, 213, 214, 246, 299; bur- 
lesques sentimental drama, 265 ; 
BIBL., 331-332. 

Genest, John, 
author of Some Account of the 
English Stage, cited, 39, 137 n., 167, 
174 n., 176, 176 n., 179 n., 188 n., 
189 n., 209, 217 n., 219 n., 222 n., 
223 n., 230, 231 n., 234 n., 236 n., 
240 n., 247 n., 248, 249 n., 277 n., 
278 n., 284 n.; BIBL., 316. 

Gentleman Dancing-Master, The 
(Wycherley), 79, 77 ; 
Bickerstaff's debt to, 257. 

George Barnwell, The History of (main 
title, The London Merchant, Lillo), 
202-207, 209; BIBL., 332-333- 

Gil Bias (Moore), 210. 

Gildon, Charles, 
dramatic work, 167; in Collier 
controversy, 144; his Comparison 
between the Two Stages cited, 169 n. 

Gloriana (Lee), 96. 

Golden Rump, The, 

as a stimulus to the Licensing Act, 
221. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 

dramatic work, 277-290; other 
references to The Good-Natur'd 
Man, 125, 268; to She Stoops 
to Conquer, 76, 126 (Tony Lump- 
kin in), 130 (Diggory in), 135, 
139, 140, 162 ; comic spirit not 
extinct before, 261-262, 263 ; Col- 
man's productions of his plays, 262, 
262 n. ; his attacks on sentimental 
comedy, 265-268 ; incidental com- 
parisons with Sheridan, 291, 297; 
BIBL., 337-338. 

Goodman's Fields Theatre, 
Giffard as manager of, 221 ; Gar- 
rick's triumph at, 228. 



Good-Natur'd Man, The (Goldsmith), 
277-282 ; 

a predecessor of Young Honey- 
wood in, 125; Colman's pro- 
duction of, 262, 262 n. ; clashes 
with Kelly's False Delicacy, 268; 
compared with She Stoops to Con- 
quer, 287-289 ; BIBL., 337-338. 

Gorboduc (Sackville and Norton), 
cited by Dryden, 54; 'dumb- 
shows' in, 184. 

Gosse, Edmund W., 
his Seventeenth-Century Studies 
cited, 74 n., 99, 99 n., 106 n. ; 
BIBL., 324, 326, 327; his distinction 
between' Restoration ' and ' Orange' 
dramatists, 106-107, 106 n. ; his 
Congreve cited, 122 n., 126 n., 128, 
128 n., 144 n., BIBL., 327-328. 

Granville, George (Lord Lansdowne), 
his Heroick Love, 166, 167; his ver- 
sion of The Merchant of Venice, 232. 

Grave-Makers, 
a 'droll,' 18. 

Gray, Thomas, 
his opinion of Douglas, 241, 241 n. ; 
his connection with Mason, 243, 
244. 

Great Favourite, The, or The Duke of 
Lerma (Sir Robert Howard), in; 
its Preface cited, 60. 

Grecian Daughter, The (Murphy), 
256. 

Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, The, 
Dryden's essay on, 93. 

Grub-Street Opera, The (Fielding), 217. 

Grumbler, The (Sedley), in n. 

Guardian, The (Cowley), revised as 
Cutter of Coleman-Street, 37. 

Guarini, 
English translations of his Pastor 
Fido, 107-108, 108 n. 

Guzman (Orrery), 45, 45 n. 

Gwynn, Eleanor (Nell), 
actress, 56. 

Halhed, Nathaniel B., 

collaborates with Sheridan, 292. 
Hamilton, Anthony, 

his Memoirs of Count Grammont, 

10-11, 75 ; BIBL., 320. 



352 



INDEX 



Hamlet, 

Grave-Makers, a 'droll' based on, 
18; Congreve's Love for Love in 
relation to, 125, 125 n. ; Jeremy 
Collier's comment on Ophelia, 142 ; 
Voltaire's borrowings from, 199; 
Garrick as the Ghost in, 229; 
Betterton as, 233 ; Garrick's pro- 
duction of, 233. 

Handel, George Frederick, 

his English operas, 172, 181, 200, 
231; oratorios, 97 n., 231. 

Handsome Housemaid, The, or Piety 
in Pattens, 
Foote's burlesque, 284. 

Hardy, Alexandre, 

his French tragi-comedies, 49. 

Harlequin Dr. Faustus, 

Thurmond's pantomime, 188. 

Harlequin Sorcerer, 

Rich's pantomime, 189. 

Hatchett, William, 
his Rival Father, 235. 

Hawkesworth, John, 

his alteration of Oroonoko, 118. 

Haymarket, Little Theatre in the, 
its early history, 218-219; Field- 
ing's connection with, 219-220, 
222 ; Foote's performances at, 249. 

Haymarket Theatre, 

its opening performances, 132, 172. 

Hazlitt, William, 

his eulogies of Congreve, 130, 130 n., 
131-132 ; his comment on Van- 
brugh's Lord Foppington, 134, 
134 n.; BIBL., 329. 

Hazlitt, W. Carew, 

documents in his English Drama 
and Stage cited, 14 n., 15 n. ; BIBL., 
321. 

Hells Higher Court of Justice (pr. 
1661), an attack on Cromwell, 37. 

Henley, W. E., 

his edition of Fielding cited, 214 n. ; 
BIBL., 333- 

Henry IV, Part I (Shakespeare), 
revivals of, 183, 232 ; The 
Bouncing Knight, a 'droll' based 
on, 18. 

Henry IV, Part II (Shakespeare), 
revivals of, 231, 232. 



Henry V (Shakespeare), 
revival of, 231. 

Henry the Fifth, King (Hill), 200 n. 

Henry the Fifth, The History of 
(Orrery), 54. 

Henry VI, Part I (Shakespeare), 
revival of, 231. 

Herbert, Sir Henry, 
his 'Office-book' cited, 2, 2 n. ; 
protests against the patentees, 31. 

Heroic Daughter, The, or Ximena 
(Cibber), 183. 

'Heroic drama,' 
D'Avenant's Siege of Rhodes as a 
possible example of, 23-25; his 
later operas in relation to, 27-28; 
introduction and development of 
rhymed, 54-70 ; partial survival 
of, 166-167; BIBL., 323-324. 

Heroick Love (George Granville), 
166, 167. 

Heroic Plays? An Essay of, by Dryden, 
66, 23-24, 24 n., 62 n. 

Heywood, Thomas, 

as a forerunner of domestic trag- 
edy, 202. 

High Life, Below Stairs (Townley), 
254-255, 217, 217 n. 

Hill, Aaron, 

adapts Voltaire's plays, 200, 201 ; 
his libretto to Rinaldo, 200; his 
comment on Voltaire, 235. 

Hill, Abraham, 
his notice of Wilson's Cheats, 39, 
39 n. 

Hill, G. B., 

his edition of Dr. Johnson's Lives 
of the English Poets cited, 63 n. 
and passim ; his edition of Bos- 
well's Life of Johnson cited, 127 n. 
and passim. 

Historia Histrionica, 
by James Wright, 
cited, 15, 19 n. ; BIBL., 319. 

Historical Register for 1736, The 
(Fielding), 220-221 ; its hits at 
Cibber's alteration of Shakespeare, 
231-232. 

History of the Mimes and Panto- 
mimes, The, by John Weaver, 
cited, 185 n„ 186, 186 n. 



INDEX 



353 



Hoadley, Benjamin, 

his Suspicious Husband, 245. 

Hogarth, William, 

his work compared with Lillo's, 
203; its connection with The 
Clandestine Marriage, 261. 

Home, John, 

dramatic work, 240-243, 239; 
Douglas parodied, 309, 309 n. ; 
BIBL., 335-336. 

Hoole, John, 
his Cyrus, 237. 

Howard, Edward, 

minor Restoration dramatist, 116. 

Howard, James, 

minor Restoration dramatist, 116. 

Howard, Sir Robert, 

dramatic work, no-Hi ; his 
Indian Queen (with Dryden), 55, 
55 n., 58; his controversy with 
Dryden over rhymed drama, 60; 
his own practice, 105 ; attacked 
in The Rehearsal, 64, 64 n. 

Hughes, John, 

dramatic work, 196-197. 

Hume, David, 

his opinion of Douglas, 241. 

Humorists, The (Shadwell), 84. 

'Humour comedy,' 

(see also Jonson, Ben) Wilson's 
revival of, 38-40; Congreve's 
definitions and views of 'humour' 
and 'wit' in comedy, 129-130; 
'humours' in Sheridan's Rivals, 
298. 

Hunt, Leigh, 

his edition of The Dramatic Works 
of Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Congreve, 
and Farquhar, 8 n., 76, 106; BIBL., 
324-325, 328-329. 

Hurlothrumbo (Samuel Johnson, of 
Cheshire), 214, 219. 

Hypocrite, The (Bickerstaff), 152, 257. 

Ibrahim (Settle), 113. 
Inconstant, The (Farquhar), 137. 
Indian Emperor, The (Dryden), 

55-56, 58. 
Indian Queen, The (Sir Robert 

Howard and Dryden), 55, 55 n., 

58, no. 



Innocent Adultery, The (main title, 
The Fatal Marriage, Southerne), 
118. 

Interregnum (164 2-1 660), 

interrupts rather than breaks con- 
tinuous course of drama, 1-2 ; con- 
dition of drama and stage during, 
14-29. 

Intriguing Chambermaid, The (Field- 
ing), 217. 

Invader of his Country, The, 

Dennis's version of Coriolanus, 
230, 230 n. 

Iphigenia (Dennis), 167. 

Irene (Dr. Samuel Johnson), 238- 
239; BIBL., 335. 

Irish Widow, The (Garrick), 254. 

Irving, Sir Henry, 

his opinion of Sheridan, 313. 

Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage, 
Garrick's version of Southerne's 
Fatal Marriage, 118. 

Island Queens, The (Banks), 117. 

Jackson, John, 

his History of the Scottish Stage 
cited, 188, 188 n. ; BIBL., 331, 336. 

Jane Shore (Rowe), 177-178, 183, 
202 ; BIBL., 330. 

Jealous Wife, The (Colman), 258- 
260, 245, 262, 263. 

Jefferson, Joseph, 

his version of Sheridan's Rivals, 
297, 297 n. 

Jew, The (Cumberland), 274. 

Johnson, Charles, 

dramatic work, 209-210. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 

his Irene, 238-239 ; his opinion of 
Dry den's Conquest of Granada, 63 ; 
of Congreve's Mourning Bride, 
127; of Rowe's Fair Penitent, 
174; of Addison's Cato, 181; of 
Home's Douglas, 241 ; of Gold- 
smith's She Stoops to Conquer, 284, 
286, 289; his connection with 
Garrick, 228, 239; with Gold- 
smith, 283 ; his remarks on Foote, 
250, 251; his praise of Mrs. 
Frances Sheridan, 292 ; BIBL., 
335- 



354 



INDEX 



Johnson, Samuel (of Cheshire), 
his Hurlothrumbo, 214, 219. 

Jones, Henry, 

his Earl of Essex, 230-240. 

Jonson, Ben., 

Restoration revivals of his plays, 
35-36, 38, 48; his influence on 
Wilson, 38-39, 43, 72, 83 ; on 
Dryden, 63, 84; on Shadwell, 84; 
his attitude toward classical drama, 
49; Dryden's reference to, 60; 
as a forerunner of Restoration 
comedy, 72, 86; Jonsonian charac- 
ters in Wycherley, 78; in Con- 
greve, 123, 126; Sedley's reference 
to his tragedies, in; Queen 
Anne revivals of his plays, 183 ; 
Colman's version of his Silent 
Woman, 262; Sheridan's 'hu- 
mours' in The Rivals, 298. 

Journey to Bath, A, 

Mrs. Sheridan's unfinished comedy, 
292. 

Journey to London, A (Vanbrugh), 
133, 152, 195- 

Juliana (Crowne), 112. 

Julius CcBsar, 

Voltaire's borrowings from, 199. 

Jupiter, 

farce written by Halhed and 
Sheridan, 292, 311. 

Justice Caught in his own Trap, The 
(main title, Rape upon Rape, Field- 
ing), 214, 214 n. 

Kean, Edmund, 
actor, 178. 

Kelly, Hugh, 
dramatic work, 268-272, 156, 
274, 277, 279, 282; his creed 
satirized by Sheridan, 310 ; BIBL., 
337- 

Kemble, Charles, 
actor, 178, 207. 

Ker, W. P., 
his edition of Dryden's Essays 
cited, 24 n. and passim; BIBL., 
323. 

Killigrew, Thomas, 
dramatic work, 33-34 ; his royal 
patent, 30-31 ; his company 



(King's) of actors, 31 ; his debt to 

Calderon, 45; BIBL., 322. 
King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther, 

a 'droll,' 18. 
King Arthur, 

opera by Dryden, 94. 
King John (Shakespeare), 231, 

231 n.; 

Cibber's version of, 231-232, 

231 n. 
King's, The, 

company of actors, 31. 
Kirkman, Francis, 

on the 'drolls', 16; his Wits, or 

Sport upon Sport, 16-19; BIBL., 

321. 
Knight, Joseph, 

his edition of Roscius Anglicanus 

cited, 1 n.; BIBL., 319. 
Knights, The (Foote), 249-250. 
Kotzebue, 

Sheridan's adaptations of, 302, 

312. 

La Calprenede, 

his influence on Restoration 

drama, 57, 96, 109. 
La Chaussee, Nivelle de, 

his connection with sentimental 

drama, 264. 
Lacy, John, 

dramatic work, 113; BIBL., 327. 
Lady Jane Gray (Rowe), 177. 
Lady's Last Stake, The (Cibber), 151. 
La Fayette, Madame de, 

her influence on Lee, 98. 
Lamb, Charles, 

his essay On the Artificial Comedy 

of the Last Century, 7-10; BIBL., 

320; his opinion of Cowley's 

comedy, 37, 37 n.; of Lillo, 203, 

203 n. 
Lancashire Witches, The (Shadwell), 

86; BIBL., 325- 
Lansdowne, Lord (George Granville), 

his Heroick Love, 166, 167 ; his 

version of The Merchant of Venice, 

232. 
Law, William, 

his treatise against the stage, 

147. 



INDEX 



355 



Law against Lovers, The (D'Avenant), 
32. 

Lear, King, 
Tate's alteration of, 5, 115; Vol- 
taire's borrowings from, 199; 
Garrick acts in, 229, 234; rival 
productions of, 234; Colman's 
version of, 262. 

Lee, John, 
his failure as Sir Lucius O'Trigger, 
293, 294, 299. 

Lee, Nathaniel, 
dramatic work, 95-99; collab- 
orates with Dry den, 92-93 ; 
satirized by Fielding, 216; in- 
cidental references to, 104, 117 n., 
173 ; BIBL., 326. 

Lessing, 
Lillo's influence on, 207, 207 n. 

Lethe (Garrick), 228, 229. 

Letter Writers, The (Fielding), 218. 

Lewes, Charles Lee, 

his Memoirs cited, 204, 204 n. 
^Licensing Act of 1737, 
fc'its causes and effect, 221-222; 
evaded by Foote, 249-250; BIBL., 
334- 

Lillo, George,'' 
dramatic work, 202-209; his 
prose compared with Edward 
Moore's, 212; Fielding's connec- 
tion with his Fatal Curiosity, 217, 
220; his historical background, 
224; BIBL., 332-333- 

Limberham (Dryden), 92. 

Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, 

Duke of York's company at, 31 ; 
Downes, prompter at, 35 ; Better- 
ton as manager of, 169 ; Rich's 
pantomimes at, 188-189; The 
Beggar's Opera at, 189-190; con- 
trasted with the Little Theatre 
in the Hay market, 218. 

Linley, Thomas, 
his music for Sheridan's Duenna, 
300. 

Lionel and Clarissa (Bickerstaff), 257. 

Locke, Matthew, 

his operatic work, 44, 94. 

London Cuckolds (Ravenscroft), 
112. 



London Merchant, The, or The His- 
tory of George Barnwell (Lillo), 
202-207, 209; BIBL., 332-333- 

Lottery, The (Fielding), 217, 217 n. 

Lounsbury, Thomas R., 

his Shakespeare and Voltaire cited, 
198 n., 199 n., 200 n., 235 n., 236 n. ; 
BIBL., 332. 

Love and a Bottle (Farquhar), 137, 
137 n., 139. 

Love and Honour (D'Avenant), 23 n., 
32. 

Love for Love (Congreve), 125-126; 
its Prologue cited, 82-83 ; com- 
pared with Colman's Jealous Wife, 
259, 259 n. 

Love in a Village (Bickerstaff), 257. 

Love in a Wood (Wycherley), 78-79, 
77- 

Love in Several Masques (Fielding), 
213-214. 

Love makes a Man (Cibber), 
Garrick acts in, 229. 

Love's Dominion (pr. 1654, Flecknoe), 
107; 

altered as Love's Kingdom (pr. 
1664), 40 n. ; Discourse ap- 
pended to the latter cited, 40; 
BIBL., 322. 

Love's Last Shift (Cibber), 133-134, 
149-150. 

Loves of Mars and Venus, The 
(Weaver), 184-186. 

Love Triumphant (Dryden), 93-94. 

Lowe, Robert W., 

his edition of Colley Cibber 's 
Apology cited, 97 n. and passim; 
BIBL., 329 ; his edition of Doran's 
Annals cited, 195 n. ; BIBL., 
318; his Bibliographical Account 
of English Theatrical Literature, 
BIBL., 317. 

Loyal Brother, The (Southerne), 118. 

Lucius Junius Brutus (Lee), 98; 
Voltaire's alleged debt to, 200. 

Lulli, 

composer of French operas, 44. 

Lying Lover, The (Steele), 158-161, 
151, 174, 192. 

Lying Valet, The (Garrick), 229, 
254- 



356 



INDEX 



Macaulay, Thomas B., 

his essay on Comic Dramatists of 
the Restoration, 8-10 ; BIBL., 320; 
his remark on bear-baiting, 19; 
his opinion of Rymer, 89 ; of Col- 
lier, 146. 

Macbeth, 

D'Avenant's alteration of, 5-6, 32, 
41 ; Voltaire's borrowings from, 199. 

Macklin, Charles, 

actor, 210, 230, 232, 234; his rela- 
tions with Garrick, 228; his pro- 
duction of The Merchant of Venice, 
232. 

Macready, William C, 
actor, 178. 

Mahomet the Imposter, 

James Miller's adaptation of Vol- 
taire, 200, 200 n. ; its Prologue 
cited, 200-201 ; Garrick acts in, 
236. 

Maid of Bath, The (Foote), 252-253, 
251. 

Maid of the Mill, The (Bickerstaff), 
257- 

Mallet, David, 

dramatic work, 197, 260. 

Malone, Edmond, 

his edition of Shakspeare cited, 2 n. ; 
BIBL., 322 ; his edition of Spence's 
Anecdotes cited, 76 n. and passim. 

Manley, Mrs., 

dramatic work, 167. 

Man of Mode, The, or Sir Fopling 
Flutter (Etherege), 75-76, 78 n., 
123; 

other references to his fop, Sir 
Fopling Flutter, 112, 134, 150. 

Man of Reason, The (Kelly), 272. 

Man's the Master, The (D'Avenant), 
32-33. 

Marforio, 

produced by John Rich, 220. 

Mariamne (Fenton), 216. 

Marina (Lillo), 208. 

Marivaux, 
a forerunner of sentimental drama, 
264. 

Marks, Jeannette, 
her English Pastoral Drama cited, 
107 n.; BIBL., 326. 



Marlowe, Christopher, 

'heroic' elements in his Tambur- 
laine, 22, 62 ; comic scenes in his" 
Dr. Faustus, 102. 

Marplot in Lisbon (Mrs. Centlivre), 
154. 

Marriage-d-la-Mode (Dry den), 67. 

Married Beau, The (Crowne), 112. 

JMason, William, 

dramatic work, 243-244. 

Masque, English, 

its introduction of operatic ele- 
ments, 22; of scenery and cos- 
tume, 25 ; D'Avenant's connec- 
tion with, 44; a somewhat late 
survival of, 208. 

Masque of Alfred (Thomson and 
Mallet), 197. 

Massacre of Paris, The (Lee), 98. 

Massinger, Philip, 

as a forerunner of 'heroic drama,' 
22 ; Rowe's debt to, 174, 175. 

Mayor of Garratt, The (Foote), 253. 

Measure for Measure, 

as a partial source of D'Avenant's 
Law against Lovers, 32. 

Memoirs of Count Grammont, by Ham- 
ilton, 10-11, 75; BIBL., 320. 

Mendoza, Antonio de, 

Fanshawe's translations of, 46. 

Merchant of Venice, The, 

Macklin's production of, 232; 
Lord Lansdowne's version of, 232. 

Meredith, George, 

his opinion of Congreve's Milla- 
mant, 130-131 ; BIBL., 328 (Essay 
on Comedy). 

Meriton, George, 
a forerunner of Jeremy Collier, 
120-121. 

Merope (Hill), 200; 

its Advertisement cited, 235 ; Gar- 
rick acts in, 236; revivals of, 237. 

Merry Wives of Windsor, The, 

popularity of, during Restoration, 
36, 232 ; Dennis's version of, 230, 
230 n. 

Middleton, Thomas, 
as a forerunner of Restoration 
comedy, 72 ; his influence on Mrs. 
Behn, 114. 



INDEX 



357 



Midsummer Night's Dream, A, 
Pepys's opinion of, 6; Bottom the 
Weaver, a 'droll' based on, 16; 
Garrick's version of, in The Fairies, 
248. 

Miller, James, 

adapts Voltaire's Mahomet, 200- 
201, 200 n. 

Milton, John, 
Dryden's operatic version of Para- 
dise Lost, 67 ; his blank verse, 92, 
128; non-dramatic character of 
his Samson Agonistes, 92 n. 

Minor, The (Foote), 251-252. 

Miser, The (Fielding), 218. 

Miser, The, 

Shadwell's adaptation of L'Avare, 
84. 

Miss in her Teens (Garrick), 254. 

Miss Lucy in Town (Fielding), 222. 

Mistake, The (Vanbrugh), 133. 

Mithridates (Lee), 97-98. 

Mock Doctor, The (Fielding), 218. 

Modern Husband, The (Fielding), 218. 

Moliere, 

general influence of, on Restora- 
tion drama, 50-51, 47, 83, no; 
influences D'Avenant, 32 ; Dryden, 
56, 57, 93 ; Etherege, 74 ; Wycher- 
ley, 78, 78 n., 79, 80-82, 81 n., 127, 
140; Shadwell, 84; Otway, 100; 
Sedley, in; Ravenscroft, 112; 
Mrs. Behn, 114; Congreve, 124; 
Vanbrugh, 133 ; Cibber, 151 ; Mrs. 
Centlivre, 154; Steele, 162; Field- 
ing, 218 ; Murphy, 255, 256 ; Sheri- 
dan, 299, 306 ; as librettist, 44. 

Moncrief, John, 
his Appius, 240. 

Moore, Edward, 

dramatic work, 210-212, 239, 243 ; 
BIBL., 333. 

Moore, Thomas, 

on The Duenna, 300; his Life of 
Sheridan, 304; BIBL., 340. 

Morell, Thomas, 
his ' See the conquering hero comes,' 
97 n. 

Moreto, A., 
his influence on St. Serfe, 46 n. ; 
on Crowne, 46 n., 109. 



Motteux, Peter Anthony, 

his Beauty in Distress, 166-167; 

his Arsinoe, 171. 
Mourning Bride, The (Congreve), 

126-128 ; 

Blackmore's praise of, 120 n. 
Much Ado about Nothing, 

as a partial source of D'Avenant's 

Law against Lovers, 32. 
Mulberry Garden, The (Sedley), 78, 

in. 
Murphy, Arthur, 

dramatic work, 255-256 ; versions 

of Voltaire, 235-236, 237; BIBL., 

336. 
Musical Lady, The (Colman), 260. 
Mustapha (Orrery), 54. 

Necromancer, The, or The History of 
Dr. Faustus, 
Rich's pantomime, 188. 

Nero (Lee), 96. 

Nettleton, George H., 
his Major Dramas of Sheridan 
cited, 162 n., 242 n., 293 n., 297 n.; 
BIBL., 315, 340; his chapter in 
Cambridge History of English Litera- 
ture cited, 207 n. ; BIBL., 315. 

Newcastle, Duchess of, 
minor dramatist, n 5-1 16. 

Newcastle, Duke of, 

minor dramatist, 84, 115—116. 

Nicholson, Watson, 

his Struggle for a Free Stage in Lon- 
don cited, 192 n. ; BIBL., 334. 

Non-Juror, The (Cibber), 151-152, 
195, 257. 

No One's Enemy but His Own 
(Murphy), 237. 

Novel, English, 

rise of, in relation to the decline of 
drama, 225-226; sentimental ten- 
dency in, 264. 

CEdipus (Lee and Dryden), 92-93, 99. 
Old Bachelor, The (Congreve), 122- 

123, 132; 

Macaulay on its immorality, 8-9; 

Garrick acts in 229. 
Oldfield, Anne (Nance), 

actress, 137, 197. 



358 



INDEX 



Old Man Taught Wisdom, An (Field- 
ing), 217. 

Old Troop, The (Lacy), 113. 

Opera, English, 

D'Avenant's Siege of Rhodes as, 21- 
22, 24-25, 43 ; other references to 
his operatic work, 5-6, 27, 30, 33 ; 
early spectacular operas, 41, 117, 
170; influence of French opera on 
Restoration opera, 43-44; Dry- 
den's operas, 94 ; his definition of, 
171 ; Italian operas on English 
stage, 170-172, 185 ; satirized, 192, 
213; Addison's English opera, 172, 
172 n.; Handel's operas, 172; 
ballad opera (Gay's Beggar's 
Opera), 189-194, 213; Carey's 
operas, 216, 217'; Garrick's ope- 
ratic versions, 234, 248; Bicker- 
staff's operas, 257; Sheridan's 
Duenna, 299-301. 

Opera, French, 
its influence on Restoration opera, 
43-44. 94- 

Opera, Italian, 

its introduction into France, 43 ; 
into England, 170-172; satirized 
by Gay, 192, 213. 

Orators, The (Foote), 251. 

Orestes, 

Francklin's adaptation of Voltaire's 
Oreste, 236. 

Oroonoko (Southerne), 118; 

altered by Hawkesworth, 118; 
Garrick acts in, 229. 

Orphan, The (Otway), 100-101, 174, 
202; 

Garrick's appearance in, 229; 
BIBL., 326. 

Orphan of China, The (Murphy), 235- 
236, 237. 

Orpheus and Eurydice, 

John Rich's pantomime, 246. 

Orrery, Earl of (Roger Boyle), 
dramatic work, 54-55, 55 n. ; his 
Guzman, 45, 45 n. ; his Black 
Prince, 59; his debt to French 
romances, 109; BIBL., 323. 

Othello, 

Pepys's opinion of, 6, 45 ; Rymer's 
opinion of, 89; Young's debt to 



Iago, 196; Voltaire's borrowings 
from, 199. 

Otway, Thomas, 

dramatic work, 99-103, 92, 95-96; 
as a forerunner of sentimental 
drama, 119, 155, 160, 264, 265; 
Rowe's relations to, 173, 178; his 
Orphan as a domestic tragedy, 174, 
202; Garrick's debt to his Caius 
Marius, 233 ; various references to, 
104, 106, 229, 238, 241 ; BIBL., 326. 

Oulton, Walley C., 

on the ' immoral tendency ' of Gay's 
Beggar's Opera, 193, 193 n. ; on 
Foote' s Handsome Housemaid, 284, 
284 n. ; his History of the Theatres 
of London, BIBL., 338. 

Padlock, The (Bickerstaff), 257. 
Pantomime, English, 

its rise and importance, 184-189, 

246-247. 
Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King 

John (Cibber), 231, 231 n. 
Paradise Lost, 

Dryden's operatic printed version 

of, 67. 
Parson's Wedding, The (Thomas 

Killigrew), revival of, 34; 

its debt to Calderon, 45. 
Pasquin (Fielding), 219-220, 218, 221. 
Pastorals, 

during the Restoration, 107-109. 
Patent Theatres, {see Drury Lane, 

Covent Garden, etc.) 

established under Charles II, 1-2, 

31; Cibber 's account of, 117; 

rival pantomimes at, 188; Foote's 

patent virtually establishing third 

Patent Theatre, 250. 
Patron, The (Foote), 253. 
Pepys, Samuel, 

his Diary, 10; his opinions of 

Shakespearean plays, 6, 45 ; his 

testimony as to Thomas Killigrew, 

34; as to Restoration plays and 

performances, 38, 45 n., 54, 55 n., 

73, in n. ; other references to, 74, 

141 ; BIBL., 320. 
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 

Lillo's Marina based on, 208. 



INDEX 



359 



Perrin, Pierre, 

French opera of, 44. 

Phcedra and Hippolytus (Edmund 
Smith), 179. 

Pkilaster (Beaumont and Fletcher), 
revival of, 183 ; 
Column's alteration of, 260. 

Philips, Ambrose, 

dramatic work, 179, 183, 184, 

23s, 239; 

satirized by Fielding, 216. 

Philips, Mrs. Catherine, 

the 'matchless Orinda,' no; 
BIBL., 327- 

Pilgrim, The (Vanbrugh), 133. 

Pix, Mrs., 

dramatic work, 167. 

Pizarro (Sheridan), 302, 312. 

Plain Dealer, The (Wycherley), 80- 
83, 77, 123. 

Plautus, 

Dryden's following of, 93 ; Field- 
ing's debt to, 218. 

Playhouse to be Let, The (D'Avenant), 
32. 

Polly (Gay), 193-194, 222. 

Polly Honey combe (Colman), 258. 

Pope, Alexander, 

on the chronology of Wycherley's 
plays, 77; on Cato, 180, 181; on 
pantomime (in The Dunciad), 187- 
188 ; note in The Dunciad, 189 n. ; 
collaborates with Gay, 190; his 
connection with The Beggar's 
Opera, 1 90-1 91 ; his opinion of 
Hughes, 196; of Lillo's George 
Barnwell, 206; hits at card play- 
ing, 210; as editor of Shakespeare, 
231 ; hits at Cibber's King John, 
231. 

Powell, William, 
as actor, 260, 277 ; as manager, 262. 

Present State of Polite Learning, The, 
Goldsmith essay on, 265-266, 
265 n., 268, 277. 

Princess of Cleve, The (Lee), 98. 

Projectors, The (Wilson), 38-39. 

Provoked Husband, The (Cibber), 133, 
152, 195, 214, 303. 

Provok'd Wife, The (Vanbrugh), 135, 
133, 136. 



Prynne, William, 

author of Hislrio-Mastix, 14, 121, 

142, 143. 
Psyche (Shadwell, music by Matthew 

Locke), 41, 44, 85, 117, 170. 
Puppet-plays, 

during dramatic interregnum, 16. 
Purcell, Henry, 

his operas, 44, 94. 
Puritans, 

hostility of, towards theatres, 1, 

14; Macaulay's dictum on, 19; 

depicted in early Restoration plays, 

36-37. 

Quarles, Francis, 

his Virgin Widow published during 
interregnum, ig, 54; privately 
acted, 55; its early use of 'heroic 
couplet,' 54-55, 59; parodied in 
The Rehearsal, 55, 55 n., 65. 

Queen Anne drama, 
aspects of, 166-184. 

Queen Catharine (Mrs. Pix), 167. 

Queen Mab, 

Garrick's 'entertainment,' 246. 

Quin, James, 
his comment on Garrick's acting, 
228. 

Quinault, Philippe, 

French operatic libretti of, 44; 
Dryden's borrowings from, 56. 

Racine, Jean, 
general influence of, on Restora- 
tion drama, no, 35, 47 ; influences 
Wycherley, 81-82; Lee, 97-98; 
Otway, 100; Crowne, 112; eigh- 
teenth-century versions of, 179, 
183, 198, 235, 239 ; BIBL., 331, 335- 

Rae, W. Fraser, 
his Life of Sheridan cited, 313 n. ; 
BIBL., 340; his edition of Sheri- 
dan's Plays, BIBL., 339. 

Rape upon Rape (Fielding), 214, 214 n. 

Rapin, 
Rymer's Preface to his Reflections, 
88. 

Ravenscroft, Edward, 

dramatic work, 111-112, no; 
his friendship with Mrs. Behn, 114. 



360 



INDEX 



Recruiting Officer, The (Farquhar), 
137, 247 n.; 
Garrick's appearances in, 228, 229. 

Red Bull Theatre, 

actors assembled at, 31. 

Rehearsal, The (Villiers and others), 
64-66; 

its parody of Quarles, 55, 55 n. ; 
its Prologue cited, 86; Rymer's 
opinion of, 89; its influence on 
Gay, 190; on Fielding, 213, 214, 
216; on Sheridan, 292, 308, 311; 
Garrick as Bayes in, 229, 229 n. ; 
Foote as Bayes in, 249 ; Arber's 
reprint of, 55 n., 308; BIBL, 324. 

Relapse, The (Vanbrugh), 133-134, 
135, 130; 

Sheridan's adaptation of, 135, 301- 
302 ; Collier's attack on, 143 ; 
Cibber's comment on, 149. 

Restoration drama, 

definitions of, 106-107 > its stage 
methods contrasted with Eliza- 
bethan, 3, 40-42 ; its general 
contrasts with Elizabethan drama, 
3—12 ; its vital connection with 
Elizabethan drama, 35, 43, 48; 
Spanish influences on, 44-47; 
French influences on, 47-51, no; 
some general aspects of, 71-72 ; 
aspects of minor, 104-119; re- 
action against immorality of, 
120-121, 141-148; Cibber's Care- 
less Husband as an expurgated 
Restoration comedy, 150; The 
School for Scandal in relation to, 306. 

Revenge, The (Young), 195, 196. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 133, 229. 

Rhodes, John, 

his license for acting, 30-31. 

Rich, Christopher, 

as manager at. Dorset Gardens, 
168; at Drury Lane, 169— 170, 172. 

Rich, John, 

his pantomimes, 184-189, 246; 
his productions of Gay's Beggar's 
Opera, 189, 246; his connection 
with Fielding, 220; his Shake- 
spearean revivals, 231 ; his pro- 
duction of Home's Douglas, 240; 
BIBL, 331. 



Richard II, 
revival of, 231 ; Tate's adaptation 
of, 115. 

Richard III, 
its relation to Rowe's Jane Shore, 
177, 178; Cibber's alteration of, 
150, 230; Garrick's appearance 
in, 228. 

Richardson, Samuel, 

as novelist, 155, 176, 206; Pamela, 
advent of, 225; Dance's drama- 
tization of, 229 ; Bickerstaff's debt 
to, 257; La Chaussee's Pamlla, 
264. 

Rinaldo, 

Handel's opera, 172, 181 ; Hill's 
libretto to, 200. 

Rinaldo and Armida (Dennis), 167. 

Rival Father, The (Hatchett), 235. 

Rival-Ladies, The (Dryden), 45, 54, 
55, 55 n, 73 n.; 

its Prologue cited, 53, 53 n. ; 
its Dedication cited, 60, 60 n. 

Rival Queens, The (Lee), 96-97, 97 n, 
117 n. 

Rivals, The (Sheridan), 293-299, 
279, 282, 301, 304, 306, 307, 313; 
Mrs. Malaprop in, 124; servants 
in, 125, 287; Lydia Languish 
and Steele's Biddy Tipkin, 162, 
162 n. ; compared with Colman's 
Polly Honeycombe, 258 ; Sir Lucius 
O 'Trigger and Cumberland's 
Major O'Flaherty, 273, 273 n.; 
BIBL, 330-340- 

Rochester, Earl of (John Wilmot), 
his reference to Etherege, 78, 78 n. ; 
his estimate of Shadwell's work, 86. 

Roman Father, The (Whitehead), 239. 

Romeo and Juliet, 
Otway's version of, in Caius 
Marius, 100, 233; Otway's dic- 
tion compared with, 101 n; Gar- 
rick's production of, 233. 

Romp, The (Bickerstaff), 257 n. 

Rosamond, 
Addison's opera, 172, 172 n, 180. 

Roscius Anglicanus, by John Downes, 
its testimony cited, 5-6, 6 n, 35- 
36, 35 n, 38, 39, 41, 4i n, 45, 
45 n, 169, 169 n.; BIBL, 319; 



INDEX 



361 



Roscius Anglicanus — Cont. 

Knight's reprint of, cited, 1 n.; 
BIBL., 319. 

Ross, David, 

acts in George Barnwell, 204. 

Rotrou, Jean, 

his French tragi-comedies, 49. 

Roundheads, The (Mrs. Behn), 114. 

Rover, The (Mrs. Behn), 109, 114. 

Rowe, Nicholas, 

dramatic work, 173-179, 184, 
202, 238, 246; Epilogue to his 
Ambitious Step-Mother cited, 169; 
its Prologue cited, 177; as editor 
of Shakespeare, 177, 215, 230; 
Garrick acts in his Fair Penitent, 
229; BIBL., 330. 

Rowley, William, 

as a forerunner of Restoration 
comedy, 72 ; The Thracian Wonder 
ascribed to, 107, 108. 

Royal Convert, The (Rowe), 176. 

Royal Shepherdess, The (Shadwell), 
108. 

Rump, The (Tatham), 36. 

Rymer, Thomas, 

his attacks on Elizabethan drama, 
88-90, 142 ; Dryden's attitude 
towards, 88, 90, 93; BIBL., 325. 

Saint-Evremond, 

on opera, 94, 94 h. ; BIBL., 326. 

St. Patrick's Day, or The Scheming 
Lieutenant (Sheridan), 299. 

St. Serfe, Sir Thomas, 
his Tarugo's Wiles, 45-46, 46 n. 

Saintsbury, George, 

Scott-Saintsbury edition of Dry- 
den's Works cited, 46 n. and 
Passim; BIBL., 323; his Dryden 
cited, 62 n., 67, 67 n. ; BIBL., 323 ; 
his edition of Shadwell, BIBL., 325. 

Samson Agonistes, 

its non-dramatic character, 92 n. 

Scarron, Paul, 
D'Avenant's borrowing from, 33. 

Scenery, 

Elizabethan and Restoration use of, 
compared, 3; D'Avenant's use of, 
21, 22, 25-29; rapid development 
of, on Restoration- stage, 40-42, 



58 n., 113 n. ; its increasing im- 
portance, 116-117, 168-169; its 

use in pantomime and spectacle, 
i«87-i88, 246. 

Schelling, F. E., 
his chapter in Camb. Hist., BIBL., 
317, 323- 

School for Guardians, The (Murphy), 
256. 

School for Scandal, The (Sheridan), 
302-307, 124 n., 279, 282, 310, 313 ; 
compared with Wycherley's Coun- 
try Wife, 80; Charles Surface in, 
125, 280; Rowley in, 157 n. ; its 
relation to Foote's Minor, 251- 
252; Colman's Epilogue to, 262; 
Joseph Surface in, 271 ; 'Ani- 
madversions' on, 275; BIBL., 
330-340. 

School for Wives, A (Kelly), 272. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 
his comment on Spanish and Res- 
toration comedy, 46 ; on Dryden's 
All for Love, 92 ; on his Don Sebas- 
tian, 93 ; Scott-Saintsbury edition 
of Dryden's Works cited, 46 n. and 
passim; BIBL., 323. 

Scudery, Georges de, 
his influence on Settle's Ibrahim, 

Scudery, Madeleine de, 

general influence on Restoration 
drama, 57, 109; on Dryden's 
Conquest of Granada, 62 ; on 
Settle's Ibrahim, 113; on Banks's 
Cyrus, 118. 

Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen 
(Dryden), 56 ; 

its Prologue cited, 63, 63 n., 84, 
84 n. 

Sedley, Sir Charles, 

dramatic work, III, 78, no; 
BIBL., 327. 

Semiramis, 
Ayscough's adaptation of Voltaire's 
Semiramis, 236. 

Sentimental drama, 
Otway and Southerne as fore- 
runners of, 119, 155, 160, 264, 265 ; 
Steele as reputed founder of sen- 
timental comedy, 155; Steele's 



362 



INDEX 



Sentimental drama — Cont. 

dramas in relation to, 155-165 ; 
sentimental strains in tragedy, 166- 
167, 184 ; in Rowe's Fair Penitent, 
173-175; Gay's satire on, 192- 
193, 194; sentimental strains in 
Lillo's George Barnwell, 204, 209; 
in other tragedies, 200-210; rise 
and full development of, 264-276; 
Goldsmith and the reaction against, 
277-284, 290; Sheridan in rela- 
tion to, 291, 294-297, 306-310; 
BIBL., 336-337. 

Settle, Elkanah, 

dramatic work, 113; his transla- 
tion of Pastor Fido, 108 n. ; his 
debt to French romances, 109; 
BIBL., 327. 

Shadwell, Thomas, 

dramatic work, 84-86, 104, 105 ; 
other references to his version of 
The Tempest, 41, 44, 56 n., 117, 
170; to his Psyche, 41, 117, 170; 
his Royal Shepherdess, 108; his 
opinion of Sedley's Antony and 
Cleopatra, in, in n. ; BIBL., 325. 

Shakespeare, William, 
{see also separate plays) 
contrasted with Restoration dram- 
atists, 4; Restoration attitude 
towards, 5-6; 'drolls' based on 
plays of, 16, 18; D'Avenant's 
connection with, 20-21, 32; Res- 
toration production of plays of, 
35 - 36, 43, 48; effect of meagre 
scenery on, 42 ; Dryden's attitude 
towards, 68, 93, 95; Shadwell's 
comment on, 85 ; Rymer's attitude 
towards, 89; Dryden's All for 
Love in relation to, 88, 90-92 ; in- 
fluences Otway, 100, 101, 101 n. ; 
Restoration adaptations of, 95, 
115; Queen Anne performances of, 
173. 183; Rowe's critical edition 
of, 177, 215 ; Rowe's ' imitation ' of , 
177-178, 184; Addison's opinion 
of, 180 ; Voltaire's attitude towards, 
198-199, 200-201, 236-237; Gar- 
rick's acting of, 227-229; earlier 
versions, editions, and productions 
of, 230-232 ; Garrick's versions and 



productions of, 233-234; Home 

as the 'Scotch Shakespeare,' 240, 
241 ; Column's productions of, 
262 ; Sheridan in relation to, 313 ; 
BIBL., 335- 

Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, 

dramatic work, 260, 292; Rae's 
edition of her Journey to Bath, 
BIBL., 339- 

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 

dramatic work, 291-313 ; other 
references to The Critic, 66, 216, 
219, 219 n., 242, 242 n., 270, 272, 
279; to The School for Scandal, 80, 
124 n., 125, 157 n., 251, 262, 271, 
275, 279, 280, 282 ; to The Rivals, 
162, 258, 273, 273 n., 279, 282; to 
A Trip to Scarborough, 135 ; to 
The Duenna, 194; variously com- 
pared with Congreve, 124, 124 n., 
125, 131, 132, 141; his debt to 
Steele, 162; to Foote, 251-252; 
BIBL., 330-340. 

Sheridan, Thomas, 
father of Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan, 241, 253, 291-292. 

She Stoops to Conquer (Goldsmith), 
282-290 ; 

compared in plot or characters with 
earlier dramas, 76, 126, 130, 135, 
139, 140, 162; Colman's produc- 
tion of, 262, 262 n. ; compared with 
Sheridan, 297 ; BIBL., 337~338. 

She Would if She Could (Etherege), 
74-75- 

Shirley, James, 

plays of, published during inter- 
regnum, 19 ; anticipation of ' heroic 
drama,' 22; Restoration perform- 
ances of, 36; Crowne's Married 
Beau in relation to, 112 ; Garrick's 
alteration of his Gamester, 238. 

Short Discourse of the English Stage, 
A, by Richard Flecknoe, cited, 40; 
BIBL., 322. 

Short View of the Immorality, and 
Profaneness of the English Stage, A, 
Jeremy Collier's essay, 121, 142- 

144. 

Short View of Tragedy, A, 
Rymer's essay on, 89, 142. 



INDEX 



363 



Shuter, Edward, 
actor, 277, 293, 294. 

Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, 
actress, 178, 243, 256. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 

his dramatic theory, 49; his 
Arcadia, 108. 

Siege of Aquileia, The (Home), 240. 

Siege of Damascus, The (Hughes), 
196—197. 

Siege of Rhodes, The (D'Avenant), 
21-27, 32, 33, 43, 44; BIBL., 322. 

Silent Woman, The (Jonson), 
revivals of, 38, 183 ; 
Colman's version of, 262. 

Silvia (Lillo), 202. 

Sir Courtly Nice (Crowne), 112-113 ; 
Spanish influence on, 46 n., 109; 
its Dedication cited, 72 n. 

Sir Foiling Flutter (main title, The 
Man of Mode, Etherege), 75-76, 
78 n., 123; 

other references to the character, 
Sir Fopling Flutter, 112, 134, 150. 

Sir Francis Drake, The History of 
(D'Avenant), 27, 27 n. 

Sir Harry Wildair (Farquhar), 137. 

Sir Martin Mar- A 11 (Dry den), 56. 

Smith, Edmund, 

his Phaedra and Hippolytus, 179. 

Smollett, Tobias George, 
novels of, 225-226. 

Soldier's Fortune, The (Otway), 100. 

Solomon's Wisdom, King, 
a 'droll,' 18. 

Sophonisba (Thomson), 197 ; 
parodied by Fielding, 197, 215. 

Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow 
(Lee), 96. 

Southerne, Thomas, 
dramatic work, 118-119; as spon- 
sor for Congreve, 122, 122 n. ; as a 
forerunner of sentimental drama, 
155, 160, 264, 265; other references 
to, 106 n., 173, 174, 202, 229, 238. 

Spanish Friar, The (Dry den), 93. 

Spanish literature, 

(especially Spanish drama) 
its general influence on early Res- 
toration drama, 45-47; on later 
Restoration drama, 109. 



Spartan Dame, The (Southerne), it 8. 

Spence, Joseph, 

his Anecdotes cited, 76 n., 77, 77 n., 
89 n., 191 n. 

Spendthrift, The (Draper), 210. 

S pouter, The (Murphy?), 255. 

Sprat, Dr. Thomas, 

assists in The Rehearsal, 64. 

Squire of Alsatia, The (Shadwell), 
86. 

Stapylton, Sir Robert, 

dramatic work, 116, 116 n. ; bur- 
lesqued in The Rehearsal, 65. 

State of Innocence and Fall of Man, 
The (Dryden), 67; 
its 'Apology' cited, 82. 

Steele, Sir Richard, 
dramatic work, 154-165; other 
references to his Funeral, 151 ; to 
his Lying Lover, 151, 174, 192; to 
his Conscious Lovers, 195, 210, 248 ; 
Spanish influence on, 46 ; his sen- 
timental drama anticipated, 119, 
264, 265 ; his verses to Congreve, 
129 ; the moral tone of his dramas, 
147, 204; his protest against 
Italian opera, 171 ; BIBL., 330. 

Sterne, Laurence, 
novels of, 155, 226. 

Stranger, The, 

partly adapted by Sheridan, 302. 

Sullen Lovers, The (Shadwell), 84. 

Summer's Tale, The (Cumberland), 
272. 

Surr, T. S., 
his novel Barnwell, 207. 

Suspicious Husband, The (Benjamin 
Hoadley), 245. 

Swift, Jonathan, 

his opinion of Vanbrugh's archi- 
tecture, 133 ; of Hughes, 196 ; his 
connection with Gay's Beggar's 
Opera, 190-191 ; his Gulliver's 
Travels, 194, 225. 

Taine, H. A., 

his History of English Literature 

cited, 101-102, 102 n. 
Tamburlaine (Marlowe), 

its 'heroic' elements, 22, 62. 
Tamerlane (Rowe), 173, 246. 



364 



INDEX 



Taming of the Shrew, The, 

Garrick's alteration of, 233. 
Tancred and Sigismunda (Thomson), 

197; 

its Prologue cited, 197 n. 

Tarugo's Wiles (St. Serfe), 46, 46 n. 

Tasso, 
Elizabethan versions of his Aminta, 
107 ; Restoration versions of, 108, 
108 n. ; Dennis's borrowings from 
(his Gerusalemme Liber ata), 167. 

Taste (Foote), 253. 

Tate, Nahum, 

dramatic work, 115, 5. 

Tatham, John, 

dramatic work, 36; his influence 
on Mrs. Behn, 114; BIBL., 322. 

Tavern Bilkers, The (Weaver), pan- 
tomimic entertainment, 186. 

Tempest, The, 

D'Avenant and Dry den's version 
of, 5, 32, 56, 56 n., 85 n. ; Shadwell's 
version of (music by Locke), 41, 
44, 56 n., 85, 85 n., 117, 170; 
Garrick's production of, 234, 248. 

Temple Beau, The (Fielding), 214. 

Tender Husband, The (Steele), 161- 
163; 
its Epilogue cited, 171. 

Terence, 

Sedley's debt to his Eunuchus, 
in; his relation to Southerne, 
118 ; Colman's debt to his Adelphi, 
250. 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 
compared with Fielding, 223 ; with 
Townley, 255. 

Theatre Royal, The, 

later known as Drury Lane, 31 ; 
stock plays at 35-36, 38. (For 
further references see Drury Lane 
Theatre.) 

Theodosius (Lee), 98; 
its Epistle Dedicatory cited, 99, 
99 n. 

Thomas and Sally (Bickerstaff), 257. 

Thomson, James, 

dramatic work, 197-198; BIBL., 
332. 

Thorndike, Ashley H., 
his Tragedy, BIBL., 317-318. 



Thracian Wonder, The (pr. 1661. 

Webster and Rowley?), 107, 108. 
Three Hours after Marriage (Gay, 

Pope, and Arbuthnot), 190. 
Thurmond, John, 

his pantomime, 188. 
Timon of Athens, 

Shadwell's alteration of, 85, 85 n. 
Titus and Berenice (Otway), 100. 
Titus Andronicus, 

Ravenscroft's alteration of, 111. 
Tom Thumb (Fielding), 215-216, 

194, 196, 197, 217, 219, 256; 

BIBL., 333- 
Tovey, D. C., 

his edition of Gray's Letters cited, 

241 n. 
Townley, James, 

dramatic work, 254-255, 217, 217 n. 
Tragedies of The last Age, The, 

Rymer's essay on, 88-89. 
Tragedy of Tragedies, The 

(see Tom Thumb), Fielding's ex- 
pansion of Tom Thumb, 215-216. 
Trip to Calais, A (Foote), 251. 
Trip to Scarborough, A (Sheridan), 

301-302, 135. 
Triumph of Love, The, 

an opera with Italian music, 172. 
Triumphant Widow, The (Duke of 

Newcastle), 84. 
Troilus and Cressida, 

Dryden's alteration of, 93 ; Dry- 
den's Prologue to, cited, 5, 5 n.; 

Dryden's essay prefixed to, 93. 
Trotter, Mrs., 

dramatic work, 167. 
True Widow, A (Shadwell), 86; 

its Epistle Dedicatory cited, in, 

hi n. 
Tuke, Sir Samuel, 

his Adventures of Five Hours, 6, 

45, 109. 
Tumble-down Dick, or Phaeton in the 

Suds (Fielding), 220. 
Tunbridge-W ells (Thomas Baker), 

its Prologue cited, 116. 
Tutor, The (Townley), 254. 
Twelfth Night, 

Wycherley's debt to, 82; revival 

of, 232. 



INDEX 



365 



Twin-Rivals, The (Farquhar), 137; 

its Preface cited, 148. 
Two Noble Kinsmen, The (Fletcher 

and Shakespeare?), 

D'Avenant's alteration of, 32. 
Tyrannic Love (Dryden), 60-62. 

Ulysses (Rowe), 176. 

Unfortunate Lovers, The (D'Avenant), 

revival of, 32. 
Unhappy Favourite, The (Banks), 

117, 240. 
Universal Gallant, The (Fielding), 2 18. 
Upholsterer, The (Murphy), 255. 

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 

dramatic work, 132-136, 122, 150; 
Sheridan's adaptation of his Re- 
lapse, 301-302 ; his relation to the 
Collier controversy, 123 n., 143, 
144-145, 145 n. ; Cibber's refer- 
ence to The Relapse, 149; as 
manager, 172; BIBL., 328. 

Venice Preserved (Otway), 101-103, 
92, 95 ; 

burlesqued by Gay, 190; Gar- 
rick acts in, 229; BIBL., 326. 

Vertue Betray' d (Banks), 117. 

Victorious Love (Walker), 166. 

Villiers, George (Duke of Bucking- 
ham), 

The Rehearsal, 64-66, 55, 55 n., 
86, 89, 213, 214, 229, 229 n. ; 
its influence on Sheridan, 292, 308, 
311; BIBL., 324. 

Virginia (Crisp), 239, 240. 

Virgin Widow, The (Quarles), 
its early use of rhyme, 54-55 ; 
parodied in The Rehearsal, 55, 
55 n., 65. 

Virtuoso, The (Shadwell), 84. 

Volpone (Jonson), 
revivals of, 38, 183. 

Voltaire, 
his general relation to English 
drama and dramatic criticism, 
198-201,235-237; compares Wych- 
erley with Moliere, 81, 81 n. ; 
his opinion of Cato, 182; his 
Nanine, 264; its Preface cited, 
264 n.; BIBL., 332*. 



Walker, William, 

his Victorious Love, 166. 
Walpole, Horace, 

his Memoirs of George II cited, 
221 n. ; his opinion of She Stoops 
to Conquer, 280-290; of The 
School for Scandal, 302-303. 
Walpole, Sir Robert, 

satirized in Gay's Beggar's Opera, 
191-192; in Fielding's farces, 
219, 220, 221 ; his connection with 
the Licensing Act, 221. 
Ward, Sir Adolphus W., 

his History of English Dramatic 
Literature, cited, 51 n., 57 n., 59 n., 
78 n., 112, 112 n., 116 n., 130 n., 
134, 134 n., 147, 147 n., 150 n., 
157 n., 159 n., 172 n.; BIBL., 317; 
his edition of Lillo cited, 203 n., 
207 n., 208, 208 n. ; BIBL., 332- 
333- 
Watkins, John, 

his Memoirs of Sheridan cited, 310, 
310 n. 
Way of the World, The (Congreve), 
129-131, 148, 150; 
Garrick acts in, 229. 
Way to Keep Him, The (Murphy), 

255. 
Weaver, John, 
his connection with pantomime, 
184-186; BIBL., 331. 
Webster, John, 

The Thracian Wonder ascribed to, 
107, 108; Tate's adaptation from 
(his White Devil), 115. 
Wedding-Day, The (Fielding), 222; 

its Prologue cited, 230. 
Welsted, Leonard, 
his Prologue to Steele's Conscious 
Lovers, 163. 
Welwood, James, 

his Preface to Rowe's translation 
of Lucan cited, 173 n. 
West Indian, The (Cumberland), 

273-274, 282. 
Westminster Drolleries, 
a collection of non-dramatic pieces, 
17- 
What-d 'ye-call-it (Gay), igo, 194, 
213. 



3 66 



INDEX 



Wheatley, Henry B., 

his edition of Pepys's Diary cited, 

6 n. and passim; BIBL., 320; 

his bibliography of Dryden, BIBL., 

323- 
Wheel of Fortune, The (Cumberland), 

274. 
Whitehead, William, 

dramatic work, 239. 
Whitelocke, Sir Bulstrode, 

his connection with D'Avenant's 

'opera', 21, 21 n. 
Wild Gallant, The (Dryden), 54. 
Wilkinson, Tate, 

actor, 252. 
Wilson, John, 

dramatic work, 38-40 ; other refer- 
ences to Jonson's influence on, 

43, 72, 83; BIBL., 322. 
Winter's Tale, The, 

Garrick's alteration of, in Florizel 

and Perdita, 233. 
Wits, The, or, Sport upon Sport, 

Kirkman's collection of 'drolls,' 

16-19; BIBL., 321. 
Wives Excuse, The (Southerne), 

118, 118 n. 
Woffington, Margaret (Peg), 

her connection with Garrick, 228; 

acts in Douglas, 240; caricatured 

by Foote, 249. 
Wonder, The (Mrs. Centlivre), 

154- 
Woodward, Henry, 

actor, 234, 277. 
Word to the Wise, A (Kelly), 272. 
Wright, C. H. C., 

his History of French Literature 

cited, 44 n. ; BIBL., 323. 



Wright, James, 
his Eistoria Histrionica cited, 
IS, 19 n. ; BIBL., 319 ; his Country 
Conversations anticipates Jeremy 
Collier, 141-142. 

Wycherley, William, 

dramatic work, 77-83, 86, 104, 
105, 106, 140; Spanish influence 
on, 46, 109; incidentally com- 
pared with Congreve, 123, 124, 
124 n., 126, 127, 132; with Van- 
brugh, 132, 135; with Farquhar, 
138; with Cibber, 152; with Col- 
man, 260 ; with Sheridan, 306 ; de- 
fended by Dennis, 145 ; Bicker- 
staff's debt to, 257; Sheridan's 
alleged debt to, in The Duenna, 
300; BIBL., 324-325. 

Ximena (alternative title to The 
Heroic Daughter, Cibber), 183. 

Yale University Dramatic Associa- 
tion, 

its revival of Goldsmith's Good 

Natur'd Man, 279 n. 
Yates, Mrs., 

actress, 178. 
York's, Duke of, 

company of actors, 31. 
Young, Edward, 

dramatic work, 195-196; BIBL., 

332. 

Zara (Hill), 200, 201. 

Zenobia (Murphy), 256. 

Zobeide, 

Cradock's adaptation of Vol- 
taire's Les Scythes, 236. 



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